There's a lot of talk lately about the fat-cat 'traditional' agencies and their undying support for 'old' advertising channels like TV, newspaper, magazines and radio; VERSUS the savvy 'new media' shops catering for everything electronic including websites, interactive banner adverts, interactive promotions, email marketing, text and mobile phone campaigns, podcasting and 5 other things just invented.
Of course the debate is not a simple one. The new media guys are doing a great job at mud slinging. It's in their best interests to bag traditional media and compartmentalise them. The truth is that 'analogue' (as the 'digital' guys would have us call it) media still makes up well over 90% of advertising budgets.
And of course the agencies labelled as 'traditional' aren't so traditional anymore. It's easy to say that buying TV is more profitable so that's where they'll spend a client's budget but they're quickly adding new media to their schedules where relevant.
The fact is that new media might be clever, interactive and exciting to show the shareholders but it's also appearing in a very diverse hyperspace where to record a page-view is infinitely less likely than to hear a jingle on an over-populated Auckland radio market.
It seems the traditional medium that has suffered the most is print, with newspaper budgets going directly to online classified and auction sites. We only have to look at the successes of Trademe (online NZ auction) and Seek (online NZ job site) for example.
Here's where I put my Wasabi hat on – agencies have to get the brand positioning right first – that's what will determine the best use of funds and the most appropriate way of targeting, or better yet attracting, consumers.
