OPEN 2

INTERACT WITH ME
Luke Chess, Creative Director,
MJW Australia
...
Every year, approaching Australian
television’s ‘night of nights,’ the Logie
Awards, a promotional competition is run
– the prize being a seat for you, the average
punter, at one of the tables among the stars
on the night.
I imagine this would be thoroughly
awful. After all, you’d be sitting there as ‘the
competition winner’ among a group of A, B
and C-list celebrities, not because you’d worked
to get there, or were a genuine part of that
community, but only because you’d bought
a certain magazine or called a 1900 number.
After a cursory chat establishing your complete
lack of credentials, I reckon you’d be ignored
by all; overlooked and lonely for the rest of the
evening. “A competition you say? How lovely.
Anyway Rove, as I was saying …”
Which brings me, in a roundabout way,
to the subject of advertising.
There’s currently much agitation among
marketers and ad types, particularly stimulated
by the impact of digital technologies, about
the relative merits and features of ‘bought’
vs ‘earned’ media.
Now it goes without saying that digital
has affected practically every industry on
earth. Photographers no longer use film.
Libraries have done away with books. Bank
robbers no longer use masks and crowbars etc.
And while the impact upon advertising media
is perhaps more subtle, it’s equally forceful.
As we know, access to the ears, eyeballs
and brains of ‘consumers’ (referred to from
now on more correctly as ‘people’) has become
democratised. Via web, mobile, or invisible
codes that materialise only in a virtual
world, practically anyone can now start
a conversation. And with a smartphone in the
pocket of nearly every Australian, practically
anyone can participate.
This means that to any real degree the
only distinction between ‘bought’ and ‘earned’
media exists on a brand’s balance sheet. People
know not and care not for the difference. They
simply experience the clamour of thousands
of voices wanting their attention. Howard
Gossage’s oft-quoted observation from half
a century ago has never been more relevant:
“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests
them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”
Sitting in the public spaces of
Melbourne’s Federation Square during the
2011 Melbourne Writers’ Festival, which would
interest you more? An expected advertising
message on the enormous billboard opposite?
Or a clever short story embedded into your
phone’s WiFi selection options – DRAGON
SLAYER PURSUED BY ANIMAL RIGHTS
ACTIVISTS – to promote the festival? (Along
with many other stories that made up the
festival’s Wi-Fiction campaign.)
When a company doesn’t even need to
pay for bricks and mortar stores – as Chinese
retailer Yihaodian proved by opening 1,000
virtual ones in augmented reality overnight –
why should they pay for any media to promote
themselves?
The answer is, like winning that Logies’
competition, paid media at least guarantees
a seat at the table. And visibility is still crucial
to making an impact – it’s just that it’s no
longer sufficient (if indeed it ever was). When
you’re appearing in paid Out-of-Home (OOH)
advertising nowadays, it’s not enough to be the
most interesting poster in town. You need
to be more interesting than the skywriter
overhead, the bus driving past, the smartphone
in my hand … or, perhaps, more interesting with
the smartphone in my hand.
In the US, clothing behemoth GAP now
supplements its traditional bus stop ads with
163 /