The future agencies can survive if marketers can form real connections between clients and consumers – moving from orchestrating campaigns to facilitating conversations. It’s not about a deep understanding of viewers any longer; it’s about knowing that everyone has a job to do and our job is to thoroughly understand what those jobs are so we can build media products that give them tools to do theirs. Data and insights, for sure – making those findings actionable is where the gap has widened. (Apr 14 2016)
What do you stand for? What is your purpose? What is your view other than what we’ve known for years that we must focus more on consumers and brands than technology and arbitrage; that we must value being great over being big. Questions that must be answered and acted, over and over again, solving one problem and creating a dozen more if you’re doing it right. Tools, relationships, and cooperation. Scaling scarcity with speed, customization, having a distinct vision and being fearless when executing. As data and analytic capabilities grow and we have increased visibility into the actual performance of our decisions, media agencies will need to face up to greater accountability.
Disinformation spread with malicious intent – is designed to incite, to conceal as well, but mainly to escalate emotions via animated content (मायावी राक्षस के आतंक) that’s very engagement friendly, audiences are primed to embrace and spread any falsehoods. Most of what these smart IT geeks call disruption for development now-a-days is just rent-seeking theft wrapped in TED Talk adjectives and we let them get away with it because we mistake power for genius. The info ecosystem is broken, fact-checking can combat lairs, but they also have to fight defamation suits filed by the other side, mostly reps of the same 1% hunks!
Media agency, or whatever sign you’d like on the front door, doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s behind the door other than observations, showbiz, gadgets and thoughts that come close to resembling insights. Long way to go as the industry dug itself into a hole, addicted to efficiency innovation vs. empowering innovation. Be the first audience agency to do stuff for people that matters. Get out of the way with the pre-roll, get out of the way of what people want to watch and read and listen to in an always-on, always-accessible, smart and connected world consumers are adopting at a pace much quicker than you can keep up with and you may have something. Solve for these issues and you will have permission to define AI agencies of 2025+
Information are highly specific, but mostly untrue. Info flood made its way into the main-cream media, with a race to break news and a jingoistic approach to reporting reaching fever pitch, as anchors, reporters, editors and commentators became cheerleaders for the govt. Many news outlets are also well-paid to suppress news damaging to government’s reputation while few others, including many big TV networks, are now 100% dedicated to promote ONLY govt policies and hyper jumlas. When we think of misinformation, we think of anonymous people, of youtube channels, of news blogs, of bots online, where you may not know exact sources, but now even previously credible journalists and major media news outlets runs straight-up fabricated stories. When previously trusted sources become disinformation outlets, it’s a really large problem.
A new breed of news ranters and event analysts are emerging artificially that combine traditional research and digital analytics skill sets. Unless you’re a Nobel laureate, the brain drain here will be away from science and not to other countries or enemies. Building service layers around a tech company is much easier than shoehorning a brittle stack into a global, fragmented media agency. An example of bringing attention to what’s going on in tech work that is hidden behind the facade of artificial intelligence, as they’re being marketed so heavily, are fully automated when it’s always people or events; and so the various bold initiatives to make those visible are hugely meaningful even if they are small compared to much deeper onslaughts for cash.
Ever wonder why they trained oil drillers to be astronauts in the action movie, Armageddon, rather than training astronauts to be oil drillers? Because it’s more fun to watch. It’s entertaining. The reverse would have been boring and successful with a running time of 20 minutes including credits. This isn’t theater, it’s business. Make bold moves and defy conventional, civil thought. It’s refreshing to be reminded that there are a wide range of people doing deep thinking about current information environment. Researching it, sharing their insights and findings, and talking about radical solutions. Incremental change is too slow for today’s flow economy. You must start over and build consumer and brand up, vs. media down. Or white-washed mafia crooks will take the first-movers advantage and fuck-up everything!