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When the CEO of the world's largest media agency talks about the future of media planning, you'd better listen carefully. But when that promising future - predicated upon the evolution of technology - is what you were doing 15 years ago, you begin to wonder
Interviewed at the IAA New York Global Marketing Summit, Irwin Gottlieb, CEO of GroupM, was asked if there was something marketers should do differently. "We need to define new ways of targeting audiences," he said.
Internationalist magazine reports further, "He (Gottlieb) outlined how we are three to four years away from a level of granularity that may help marketers pinpoint when a consumer is planning a major purchase. For example, automakers may be able to better utilise existing data on a consumer's current vehicle make and model, along with the end date of a current lease or loan agreement, to offer specific messages in the 45-day period before that consumer plans to buy another car."
One of our clients in Jakarta was Toyota Astra Motor. Toyota's local partner, Astra also owned Auto 2000, the largest auto retail chain in the country; Mobil 88, a used car dealership; and Astra Finance, a finance company that gave auto loans. Put this together, and what do you have?
Ogilvy handled direct marketing for the Toyota Corona. It was not hard to figure that your best prospects were satisfied Toyota Corolla upgraders. We knew that the average replacement cycle was three years. Putting together all our client's data resources, we identified those who had owned a Toyota Corolla for two-and-a-half years and more; and then, here's what happened.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing advertising of all the businesses, including for the new Toyota Corona, this Corolla owner received an invitation to test drive the new car. Meanwhile, he also got a mailer from Mobil 88, telling him that there was a good market for two-to-three-year-old Corollas, and inviting him to drive in for a free valuation. About the same time, he got a mailer from Astra Finance, offering finance for the Toyota Corona on attractive terms.
So, in three seemingly independent, orchestrated pieces of targeted communication, the hot prospect was invited to experience the new car; offered assistance to buy it; and offered help to dispose of his old car. Loop closed.
When we worked this out, it was no great flash of brilliance. There was no thunder and lightning -- it just seemed like a good idea, even a clever little idea, and a lot of hard work ahead, given the limited data processing capabilities of the time. I have no doubt that with premeditated data capture and better technology; you could layer the whole campaign and separately target prospects having different levels of engagement with the brand. But that's only a matter of degree, not a new way of doing things.
More revelations follow: "(Gottlieb) believes that future marketing budgets will be bifurcated to just two disciplines. The first allocation will go to general awareness…. The second allocation will go to specifically targeted messages…"
"There is no question," the magazine continues, "that GroupM's CEO sees a marketing world ahead that embraces both targeting and broad awareness…."
I don't want to believe that is all the head of the world's largest media agency has to say about what we need to do differently in the future. Someone please tell me it's just bad reporting.
(The writer is vice-chairman at Times Global Broadcasting Company. This article was first published on the writer's blog, chintarao.blogspot.com).