Filtering New Media Noise

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New media is filled with competitive noise, comprising new technologies, companies, and evolved consumer media habits. This noise spectrum causes our phones to ring with promises of delivering the next best media offering at a price that's more efficient than any current media buy. But as you know, this often isn't the case. We're continually pitched new ideas and opportunities enjoyed by early adopters that don't necessarily have the scale to appeal to a strategic media plan.

Your job as marketers is to market. Our jobs as marketing consultants and agency types is to inform you of the evolving landscape and changes on the horizon. I have a slide of a comet I share before I get into any quarterly new media trend reports. I use the image to explain to clients that we're riding in the head of the comet, and it's our job to break through the fields of new ideas and opportunities. Once we do this, we can distill the opportunities into emerging trends we can present back and explain through the use of scenarios and our persona process. In short, it's our job to listen, distill, and organize trends and patterns.

While we do our fair share of passing on new media opportunities, we still take the time to listen to the idea and understand its genesis. Clearly, there must be some opportunity or reason that excited the minds of those who developed the presented technology. It's this insight that excites us the most. If the reason is compelling enough for someone to start a business, it should be discussed and shared to open our minds to what the future might bring.

The next time you find yourself in a discovery meeting about a new media concept or opportunity or with a new media partner, take a step back and disassociate the tactics from the insight that drives the opportunity: