Return to page one
Lost in thought and reflection, the time passed quickly and Toshiko found herself at her destination at 53rd and Park. The old Lever Brothers building still had an elegance that enabled it to withstand the test of time. The fact that Danbury Genetic chose it for the corporate headquarters was, perhaps, a good omen.
The presentation was held in the boardroom -- a massive room that seemed out of proportion to the total number of attendees. Rice Hopkins, CEO and Heather Williams, SVP of Marketing were the attendees, both seated at the head of a rich, mahogany conference table. Toshiko positioned herself a couple of seats away. Close enough that she could still see her audience, far enough to establish a distance that hinted at the exclusive expertise she brought to the table.
"Toshiko, thanks for your time," began Rice. "We've had a lot of discussions and I see this as the decision making meeting. To recap, we're old school when it comes to marketing. In the past we've exercised a lot of control. We use agencies who present the creative ideas, separate media groups that present strategy and tell us where, when and how our name will be presented. We really can't assess the results until well after a flight has concluded. It's a very hands-on process that, frankly, is time intensive and manual"
"As we've discussed, Mr. Hopkins, that eats a lot of your time," Toshiko said.
"True enough," he said. "But it's hard to give up control. Part of that is me; part of it is our product. We engineer genetic changes in utero for parents who want to customize their kid the same way their grandparents customized their cars. All of our marketing is heavily regulated by Federal guidelines, and we ourselves have to make sure our claims are balanced with disclosure on the risks."
"Understood," Toshiko said. "And that's one area we don't want to get involved in -- the creative."
"Listen, can we cut to the chase?" Heather asked. She shifted in her chair with visible impatience. Toshiko couldn't blame her. Heather was about to cede control of a valuable marketing function. Her role would be diminished. Rice gave her a good glare, and then nodded at Toshiko.
The media maven as media trader
Toshiko plugged in her laptop, toggled the display so that the MAM Control Screen filled up the 8 x 6 foot flat screen at the end of the conference room.
"Great. Let's go." Toshiko rose to her feet. She always felt better presenting on her feet, pacing and gesturing to stress her points. "You've given me a test budget of $250,000 to prove that MAM can do better than your traditional methods. You would spend that money anyway, and it's a fraction of the $75 million you'll spend on various media this year. It's a small price to pay for a test that will change the way you do business forever. So, I'm going to take that money and invest it now in your vidline schedule. It's 5:45 PM now, and over the next couple of hours we'll put that money to work for you."
"As you can see, I've taken the money and allocated it to the traditional media you currently use. See the tab marked 'vidline'? You'll see there are placements that are scheduled for 6 PM airing -- two minutes from now -- across NewsCorp, GoogleVision, YaNews and BBC." She let it sink in. "In sixty seconds, we're going to view the initial results of those placements."
Toshiko focused on the media dashboard. Selecting the "vidline" tab transformed the screen into a series of four separate grids, one for each distribution channel. In the corner of each grid, a bar pulsated as if waiting for something to happen. At 5:59, something did. Toshiko click on a rapidly flashing, blue asterisk labeled "Distribute" and at once each grid sprang to life filling the screen with bars and lines that took on a life of their own.
Toshiko's expert eyes translated the activity in an instant and she narrated for Rice and Heather. "We just distributed your creative to the four target networks and now we're viewing the responses to your marketing campaigns. We can measure the response to your video commercial by counting the requests for additional downloaded information packets as well as increases in your call center activity. In addition, the line traveling along the "y" axis shows the changes to the Rickert Branding Scale."
"Let's see what the impact is from these first placements," she continued. The NewsCorp placements have done extremely well, generating 25 percent more leads and increasing the Rickert Scale from the baseline by 35 percent. That's a relatively high index for your category and product -- and it means that both response and branding have increased. But the YaNews placement really bombed. Let's see why… ah… they're promoting the Amor Awards with graphic video segments. No wonder the attention is off your product. Nice of them to keep that programming change a secret."
"So, what do we do? I want to sell your YaNews flight on the open spot market. Someone will snatch it up with a product that is a better fit for the programming. Let's heavy up on the NewsCorp placements by trading or purchasing on that same media marketplace and see the effect. I've initiated that change now. Next placement airs in five, four, three, two, one."
And so it went for the next hour. On a minute by minute basis, Toshiko shifted the balance and placement of media in reaction the performance of each distribution channel. Both the increase in the Rickert Scale for branding and the actual response were important. Sometimes the change in a broadcaster's programming influenced results, sometimes a local breaking news story diverted a metro population's attention, necessitating a shift of media to an adjacent market. Changes in distribution material could be made as well, by sending subtle changes to brochures or telemarketing scripts electronically. Thus, conversion could be impacted as well.
The demonstration came to an end. Toshiko took her hands off the keyboard, wiped her brow with the back of her shirtsleeve and faced her prospects, letting it all sink in.
"Well, what did that prove?" spoke Heather. Toshiko couldn't have set it up any better if she supplied Heather with the script.
"Good question, and here's the answer," said Toshiko as she toggled the screen display. "You're now looking at two screens. The first screen shows the projected results of your marketing campaign if you had allowed the placements to go on unchanged over the course of a full week. At best, results flatlined, and in general, their effectiveness diminished over time. The second screen shows the projection given MAM's active management of your media assets. In just the first hour alone, we increased the Rickert Scale by 45 percent over traditional static placement and increased measurable response by 25 percent. Put into numbers, we just generated an additional $500,000 in leads and projected sales for your services in the one hour I've been sitting here."
"So," summarized Toshiko, "you can either continue to do things old school and have your competition overrun you, or you can give up control and let the experts in media buying, distribution and operations actively manage your account on a minute by minute basis. You give up your financial assets to SmithBarneyWatch -- you'd be just as smart to give your media assets up to MAM."
And with that, Toshiko closed the display and calmly stared at her newest clients.
So is this science fiction or science future?
I believe this is a plausible future. The internet has driven a measurement revolution in media that won't go away. As media converges, that same accountability will become as much a part of the traditional vernacular as GRPs are today. Decision making will be fast and furious, and -- like the fund managers who manipulate stock portfolios today -- a new class of experts will be responsible for getting the best yield out of a media budget.
Minute-by-minute.
Hour-by-hour.
Day-by-day.
Doug Wintz began his interactive career with Prodigy in 1988. During that time, he pioneered the sales and development of online applications for automotive clients Toyota, Ford and Autobytel, brokerage firm DLJ Direct and grocers Dominick's and D'Agostino. He led the development of one of the first online ad networks for Softbank, managed sales/operations for gamesite Uproar and recently served as VP of Digital Media Solutions for Lycos. Doug is currently founder and principal of DMW MediaWorks, a consultancy in interactive media and operations, with long-term clients that include the market leaders in online health, broadcast television, behavioral targeting and custom publishing.
Return to page one
