MEDIA ART, a new name for advertising?
Doug Melville, CDO (Chief Diversity Officer) at TBWA Advertising agency came to my Reputation Management class @ Stanford to discuss how to build a good reputation. As he talked about TBWA and the Advertising industry, I started thinking about how the industry itself is suffering the problem they help their clients solve.
While at Stanford we hear from C-level speakers daily. I have only heard 2 C-level speakers from the Advertising industry. John Seifert, Chairman & CEO of Ogilvy Matter (back in September 2017) & today Doug Melville, CDO at TBWA. Seems like Advertising is not a popular industry in Silicon Valley. But it is not just in the Valley. Around the world major consumer trends are reshaping the traditional way brands reach consumers. I divide those trends in 2 groups:
Media: New digitally native generation consumes media differently, VOD (video on demand) platforms, social media and mobile apps, to name a few.
Messaging: New digitally savvy and informed consumers are not persuaded by the same message structure, design and creative resources.
All these changes have brought disruptors to the Advertising industry. Clients are willing to experiment with them as traditional agencies were slow to adapt. Therefore, traditional agencies and their work, advertising, are suffering from positioning irrelevance.
Today I heard a term from Doug that I thought was very interesting. He referred to advertising as “Media Art”. And he used the term when defining what TBWA does. Is “Media Art” an attempt to re-brand advertising? Can the reputation of advertising and the industry benefit from this re-branding? To start answering the question, I will choose the 3 main lessons the advertising industry should think about applying from the framework Doug shared with us today.
3 from the “7 Lessons in reputation management by Doug Melville”:
Prove trust and consistency: “Media Art” needs to gain back trust from consumers with transparency and authenticity, in order for agencies to gain back trust from clients.
Focus on your strengths, not your weakness: Leverage the agencies’ creativity and brand building strength to position “Media Art”.
Know how to tell your story: Agencies should tell their own story using “Media Art”, not only that of their clients.
Why is this important for Advertising and the industry? Because in order to survive the digital revolution the industry needs to stay relevant for both client and talent acquisition and retention. And just as agencies do it for their clients, re-branding and re-positioning seems like a good idea!