Each Message Is A Piece Of A Larger Communication Framework

Principle
Information overload increases the likelihood that communications are lost in the noise. Creating coherence across the myriad media channels is necessary to convey memorable messages in emerging media. While it’s always been a marketing tenet to re-enforce your key points in all branding efforts—billboards, bumper stickers, radio, TV, etc.—now it is even more important, because each individual message may be seen by fewer people.

Best Practice
Embrace cross-channel messaging with consistent branding across platforms.  Giving your customers different messages through different media will confuse them, and they’ll tune you out. Communication no longer happens in silos. 

Context
Political and corporate communications strategist Carter Eskew, a Founding Partner of the Glover Park Group, said the media message overload has led consumers to seek information and interaction that suits them, rather than passively accept messages that have been thrust upon them.[i]

“Media has a totally different model than I think it once did,” Eskew said. “It was centralized, and there were only a few channels of distribution.  You took what you got, you went to the cafeteria, and there were two specials, maybe you got some sprinkles on your ice cream, and that was about it.”

Michael Sheehan said the amount of information transmitted to each individual increases the likelihood all the messages will lose meaning and importance.  “All these little flashes of information, Twitter, news crawls, and headlines, I think of each as a “tile” of information that needs to be tiled together like a mosaic,” Sheehan said. “Otherwise, it’s meaningless. I think that the need for every candidate and every business to put these “tiles” into a very simple framework has never been greater. When I work with my corporate clients it’s largely about coming up with that very simple framework.”[ii]

Evidence shows that today’s consumers increasingly are combining media usage, such as watching TV and surfing the Internet at the same time. A 2007 Burst Media study on media usage found that 82 percent of Internet users were interacting with another medium while surfing online.[iii]   The shortening attention span of consumers poses a challenge to marketers, according to Jarvis Coffin, CEO and co-founder of Burst Media.  “Expanding media diversity can solve the problem for advertisers,” Coffin said in the report.  “It provides them with countless combinations to deliver coordinated messages across different platforms and get consumers attention.  This is particularly true between television and the Internet.”

Nielsen’s most recent “Three Screen Report” also showed high overlap between TV and Internet usage. According to the survey, 57 percent of Internet users watch TV simultaneously at least once a month, and respondents said they spent more than one quarter of their total Internet time simultaneously watching TV.[iv]  Also, consumer electronics companies such as Sony, Vizio, LG and others have announced multiple broadband-connected HDTV models, which will allow access to widgets and IP communications through the TV itself.[v]  Leveraging the confluence of the Internet, TV and social networking in the living room will be crucial to communicating messages effectively in the near future.

Case Studies
When Nissan prepared for the launch of its new Rouge model, it included plays in many online arenas, in addition to its television spots.  Nissan produced an online game with the car featured prominently and several online video spots about the car called “Maze Master.” (The videos were viewed more than 200,000 times in 4 weeks.)  Nissan also bought online and TV advertising around the NBC program “Heroes.”[vi]  The campaign led to heightened anticipation for the Rouge, helping sales stay even while other models took double-digit hits on year-over-year sales.[vii]

GoDaddy.com, an Internet domain name registry, melded traditional advertising with online video in a 2009 Super Bowl ad.  The TV spot was essentially a teaser trailer. It featured scantily clad women and promised a “Too-hot for TV” online video version at the GoDaddy website, in an effort to drive traffic to the homepage.  CEO Bob Parsons explained the strategy on his video blog on the site, and said the company’s share of new registered domain names rose to 25 percent the week following the ad.  GoDaddy only had 16 percent share of new registered domain names the preceding month.[viii].                

Carter Eskew said he’s working with the Alliance for Climate Awareness to design an “online wall,” where climate control advocates can post their stories and share why they’re passionate about the cause.[ix]  He said the “wall” will accept multiple forms of content, including text, picture and video. Eskew said his group will use this material for targeted local TV ads, which will be informed by regional preferences garnered from the wall project.


[i] Carter Eskew, interview with Three Ships Media, October 9, 2009.
[ii] Michael Sheehan, interview with Three Ships Media, October 7, 2009.
[iii] Burst Media, “Multitasking Media Consumers Are Merging the Internet with Other Media,” November 11, 2007, https://www.burstmedia.com/about/news_display.asp?id=43, accessed October 2009.
[iv] The Nielsen Company, “A/2 M/2 Three Screen Report: Volume 5, 2nd Quarter 2009,” September 2, 2009, http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/3ScreenQ209_USRpt_final.pdf, accessed October 2009.
[v] Chris Albrecht, “TVs Transform at This Year’s CES,” January 11, 2009, http://newteevee.com/2009/01/11/tvs-transform-at-this-years-ces/, accessed October 2009.
[vi] Laurie Sullivan, “Nissan’s Agency Details Online Branding Success,” MediaPost.com, March 24, 2009, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=102733, accessed October 2009.
[vii] Christopher Baccus, “Nissan Rouge’s Marketing Success Maze,” The Auto Marketing Blog, March 25, 2009, http://automarketingblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/nissan-rogues-marketing-success-maze.html, accessed October 2009.
[viii] Bob Parsons, “Want to build a HOT business?” September 4, 2009, http://www.bobparsons.me/index.php, accessed October 2009.
[ix] Carter Eskew, interview with Three Ships Media, October 10, 2009.