By Matt Miller

We’ve all heard countless proverbs regarding Change and the opportunity that it creates. Yet no matter how many times we hear it, and no matter how much sense it makes in theory, in times of great change the unknown often makes us feel, deep down, a bit uncertain, and may even leave us longing for the comfortable, predictable past.

 

Well, there’s change in the air, and I’m here to say it’s all good.

The first piece of change is that SHOOT is now under full ownership and control of longtime Publisher and AICP friend Roberta Griefer.  This is a change that will certainly benefit the industry, as we look to SHOOT as an information resource giving its perspective on what’s happening in the creation and production of advertising.

Change is also in the air for the advertising agency and production industry readers of SHOOT, in all areas of this business, as we see the way marketers communicate and connect with their customers rapidly evolve, and utilize alternative media vehicles to deliver their messages.  And that impacts all of us reading this publication.

Anyone attending the Association of National Advertisers’ annual meeting last October heard firsthand from leading CMOs that they are rethinking, and more important, reallocating funds for communicating with their core audience. While all of them illustrated their “new” positioning with TV commercials, reinforcing the power of television advertising in its current form, the discussion focused on the quest for quantifiable return on their marketing investment–a long-sought goal, and a quality they aren’t sure they can ever get with spots.

There is little doubt that the television landscape is changing, and equally little doubt that the role of television commercials is shifting as well.  Technologically it must, considering that viewers are given control of how, when, and what they watch (and in the case of advertising, you can add if they watch). That tells you that television advertising must change; in fact it’s already changing. The growing popularity of DVRs is one reason we’re seeing the rise of branded entertainment and brand integration right now.  While some of this is moving marketing dollars away from spots (a bad thing for spot makers), it is also creating unconventional collaboration between advertisers and producers (a good thing for creative talent). A case in point is the overwhelming interest in the “Battle of the Brands,” the first awards competition being held for recognition in this business space and presented collaboratively by ANA and AICP in February (how’s that for a commercial in the content?).

In the new frontier, opportunities abound for creative thinking and execution.  While television viewing as we know it is evolving, advertisers themselves are clinging to the certainty of the past, all the while hungering for change.  One just has to look at the booming financial outcome of the 2004 upfronts as proof.  Why this inconsistency?  It’s because the message communicated through sight and sound, through a moving picture, is and always will be the most engaging way to tell a brands story to the viewer.

At the moment, television still holds sway as the chief medium that can deliver this desirable format.  However, as the broadband environment becomes ubiquitous, more and new avenues to communicate using motion picture will open.  Herein lies the opportunity in the change. As creators and producers of engaging messages for marketers, how is the industry going to rise to the challenge of creating messages in the various environments for advertisers?  The answer is simple–by using the skills they already possess, by thinking about the media landscape in a whole new way, by not being pigeonholed into former roles, and by leading the way in developing innovative projects for marketers.

Yes, change is in the air. But opportunities abound for creative collaborators to strut their stuff.  AICP is going to be there, helping to keep our members up to speed on what is happening in new arenas, and representing their interests as opportunities arise. This is what we’ll be reading about on the new pages of SHOOT, and I, for one, can’t wait for the story to unfold.

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