|
 |
| It's The Real Thing |
|
PREFACE
AmeriMedia creates relationships with its clients. Whether it is the relationship between our own TV, radio station, publication or outdoor media clients, or advertising agencies and their corporate clients, we are highly motivated to bond, strengthen and secure the rapport between all parties involved in the advertising and promotions process. But, most important, is the relationship between the audience and the brand … the impact produced by a simple commercial, an in-store promotion or published article that prompts the constant growth of product sales in each culture of every international market.
AmeriMedia sustains a keen understanding of consumer buying in the Caribbean and Latin American markets, as well as in the USA. Our unequalled efforts effectively and efficiently reach the consumers who buy products, and in many ways we work for them.
Over the past few years the trade has gone through a few changes ... an evolving process ... that which creates partnerships among the media community and the client. This process will be voiced by Fortune 100 corporations who realize that creating partnerships is the only way to make rapid strides and improve sales in our competitive world.
The most renowned brand in the world, Coca-Cola, often viewed as a big corporation with deep pockets, is selecting capable media partners … those who are willing to work and contribute to their own advertisers overall market performance.
Today you can clearly see the media environment changing as new mergers and acquisitions are creating networks offering advertisers a greater degree of value-added elements, higher reach and frequency, and larger returns on investments.
The enclosed excerpts will provide an outlook of Coke’s new direction and the partners they seek. Perhaps, Coca-Cola was not the first company to speak out about this. AmeriMedia has always applied these working principles since our early days and we invite you to join us explore the ever-promising business opportunities that lie ahead.
The following excerpts are taken from an oral presentation made by Steven J. Heyer, COO, Coca Cola Co. in Beverly Hills, California, as reported in Advertising Age Magazine, February 5, 2003.
“At the Coca Cola Company we’re thinking about marketing in a radically different way. And I’d suggest that those of you here today who aren’t yet thinking this way ought to start right now.
Economic and social developments demand a new approach to connecting with audiences, with consumers:
· The economic landscape around media cost-efficiencies
· The escalation of property and sponsorship costs
· The fragmentation and proliferation of media, and the consolidation in media ownership – soon to be followed by a wholesale unbundling
· The erosion of mass markets
· The empowerment of consumers who now have an unrivaled ability to edit and avoid advertising and to shift day parts
· A consumer trend toward mass customization and personalization
· And, the emergence of an experience-based economy, where cultural production is more important than physical production – cultural production is where Madison meets Vine.
I am describing a magnitude and urgency of change that isn’t evolutionary – it’s transformational. And as leaders in consumer packaged goods, Coca-Cola will go first.
Where will Coke go? To accelerate the convergence of Madison & Vine – a convergence of the trinity in brand building – content, and media, and marketing. This is a convergence born of necessity. Economic necessity and marketplace opportunity. We need each other – now more than ever. We need each other to capture people’s attention and influence their attitudes and behaviors. The media and marketing executives among us better recognize that corporate marketers will not reflexively turn to TV advertising when what we mean is powerful communication and consumer connection.
…And the agency executives among us, and I used to be one of you too, your model is in need of a wholesale redefinition … your future will be in working with, not against, content creators. Agencies should be quarterbacking the collaborations … most undermine them.
… We need your content, your storytelling, your influence, your ability to create experiences. … Popular culture, entertainment has proven its ability to sell products and services, to transform brands and images to define what’s relevant to facilitate transactions and relationships.
… It’s not the property, the TV show, the movie, the music of the brand. It’s why, where, and how we bring them together. And it is, as ever, about the consumer, all glued together by a powerful idea. It’s the insight about people’s passions and the connections we create – naturally and uniquely – between them and the equity in our brands. Cultural icons in brand context. Important events tide to important brands … with an important reason why. Our shared challenge isn’t just in overcoming the creative and economic tensions that are an inherent part of this convergence of content and commerce … it’s about creating more value for the consumer – as a way of creating more value for our business and shareholders. It’s that simple and that tough. We must create more value for consumers, audiences, and customers. How? Through cooperation, collaboration, and innovation in marketing and communications. Through innovation in the way Madison meets Vine. Through working together to create something for our brands that matters more on Main Street and ultimately, Wall Street. For The Coca Cola Company, that’s value around the bottle that’s at least as great as the value in the bottle.
… That’s a timeless proposition. But we express it in the unique vocabulary of each generation, for what’s timeless must also be timely – or it’s dated. What’s classic should stay classic – but must also remain contemporary. Like Elvis, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Superman … and Coke Classic. That’s how our products, brands, and businesses stay fresh, relevant and in demand. It’s all about right associations, at the right time with the right idea.
… So, where are we going? Away from spots in pods. Away from broadcast TV as the anchor medium. … Presence is easy – impact is hard. … And away from traditional relationships with agencies, the Hollywood community, the sports community and many of our customers. So, where are we headed? We’re headed to ideas. … Ideas that bring entertainment value to our brands, and ideas that integrate our brands into entertainment.
We’re moving to ideas that use celebrities to illustrate, enhance and extend the values that underpin our brands. We don’t want to use talent simply to break through the clutter. Breaking through is a first step but it’s not enough. And, frankly our brands are bigger than celebrity spokespeople – and borrowed equity only works when you have none of your own. We will use a diverse array of entertainment assets to break into people’s hearts and minds. In that order. For this is the way to their wallets. Always has been. Always will be. This much hasn’t changed. We’re moving to ideas that elicit emotion and create connections.
… So do we need reach and frequency – no. We need idea driven connection with our targets. Our marketing efforts, our properties and media and celebrity deals will only produce an adequate return on investment if we use our network of bottlers, customers, promotional partners, properties and associations to add value beyond the bottle and enrich the lives of our consumers. You can be our added value. And we can be yours.
… To think differently about how we’ll connect with consumers in the future.
… The concept is simple: create value for people … that lives beyond and extends the immediate moment of consumption … connecting with their passions n a way only The Coca Cola Company can. … As we move to an experience-based economy, the effective use of relevant and powerful cultural references takes a front seat. Each person’s life becomes a commercial market. And any agency that thinks a jingle connects like real music, or a powerful movie, and doesn’t collaborate, is lost. Most of the traditional media people here think about reach and frequency at a price.
… Imagine if we used our collective toolkit to create an ever-expanding variety of interactions for people that – over time – built a relationship, an on-going series of transactions, that is unique, differentiated and deeper … improving everyone’s economics and reversing the buyer-seller, zero-sum game. … In this new marketing world we need to look at one and other not in terms of how much we can pay, but in terms of what we can do and make together. How we can exchange value to create value. … Marketers build programs that glue together a multiplicity of relationships to create the reasons why we are entitled to a consumer’s loyalty and a premium price. Those clear-cut definitions fit neatly into a box … a box defined by uniformity and predictability, which is no longer sustainable in a hper-fragmenting world. If we continue to confine ourselves to those roles, that box is going to become a coffin. The headstone will read: ‘They didn’t try.’ ”
|
|
|
