Once upon a time when advertising was young, and I was just out of school working at the feet of an advertising guru of the day, I would put my music and composition skills to work to make up jingles that we would broadcast to sell brands such as White Wizard that magically turned ‘tennis shoes’ white, or Rebecca Lee Wildflower talc that would keep you dry and fragrant all day long! I remember writing a lengthy defence of a lilting ¾ time piece of music I had created for that brand to convince the client to break the rules and change his mind from the catchy upbeat jingle he was demanding.

That was a few years before TV came to Sri Lanka in 1979. In the early days of TV, with a choice of 2 stations, the 5 member family and the next-door neighbor faithfully gathered every evening to watch the prime time teledrama, and made up the living room audience with their eyes glued to the TV. My former ad agency colleague had now become a hot teledrama star, and commanded a ratings as high as 65 when he acted in the most popular soap of the day.

Those were days when broadcast advertising brought great returns! The world has changed since, and now we have more of everything. More brands, more competitors, more choice, more channels – both radio and TV. Audiences have got fragmented with channel proliferation. Each channel draws a much smaller audience except when we are playing cricket or watching the next superstar. Of course the prime time teledramas are still a sell, but with a third of the previous audience at best.

Sri Lankan marketing managers and agencies still believe in the power and value broadcast advertising and so we continue to make TV commercials and write those jingles and those irritating radio spots that drive you up the wall during drive time. Can your TVC generate a conversation about your brand? If so, you are doing good and engaging your audience.  Is it so cool that a fan snicks it puts it on YouTube and does it then generate many more views than broadcast advertising ever could? Then you have moved from engaging mode to sharing mode. Does it become an ad that people ‘google’ to see? Then you’ve moved to the search mode, when people are stalking you. Ideally, this is where we want to go today.

Why are we slowly getting disenchanted with broadcast advertising? The reasons are many. Audience fragmentation is one. Smaller audiences mean that marketers have to spend more money across multiple channels and programmes to reach their markets.  But if only those audiences would be attentive! Today’s multitasking and remote empowered audiences are simply not! They are now doing their own thing and watching TV when they want to and not necessarily together with their families. They may be downloading the movies they want to watch from the Internet, or watching a movie from a multi-channel cable TV or DTH operator. So what happens to your commercial? How do we move from broadcast commercials to commercials that engage and get talked about and shared and go viral? How do we beat the diminishing returns of broadcast TV?

How can we engage our audiences rather that shout at them and hope we are making headway? How can we create conversations about our brands?

Conversations you say? Now, why are conversations so important? What have conversations got to do with people buying your brand? Quite a lot, when you come to think of it. Think of it, when did you last rush to the store after seeing a commercial to buy something? Think of it, we can no longer bombard people into becoming consumers. Think of it, what did research say was the most powerful form of communication? Advertising? Try again. Yes, WOM it is. Word of Mouth!

We buy stuff when our friends and peers recommend them. We stay away from brands that our friends say didn’t match up to advertising claims. So wither advertising? Advertising can still work for us and it does in many ways. Ads create imagery and perceptions about our brands. Ads that are likeable make us like the brands they advertise. Advertising is still “the most fun you can have with your clothes on”. But today ads have to do more. They have to engage. They have to be interesting enough to generate interesting conversations. It’s only when people are interested and engaged with your brand that they talk about and recommend it to their friends.

So, it’s time to start thinking beyond that 30 second commercial. It’s time to combine the power of TV with the connectivity and engagement power of digital and social media. It’s time to explore new formats. Two-way conversations, rather than one-way broadcasts. It’s time to talk to communities who have common interests. It’s time to relate our brand to those interests. For instance, there’s a whole lot of people out there “going natural” with products that are natural, herbal, good to eat, or good to put on yourself. So if your brand can relate to that community and generate positive conversations among these communities then we are on our way to getting adopted. (Check out the “way of natural living” blog we created for the herbal personal care brand Kumarika and you’ll see how it works.)

To make this happen we need to talk broader than our usual sales talk. Broader than our features and benefits spiel. We need to cater to the broader information and entertainment needs of our audiences and keep them engaged on an on-going basis with our brands. We need to give them a platform or place where they can share their thoughts and experiences with others with similar interests. Repetitive commercials do not do this. Interest-based blogs do.

So, if we can start from scratch and see how we can keep our audiences engaged with our brands and conversing among themselves about our brands, then that’s the way to go. TV is not out, but we need to find new ways to use TV. And radio. And print. To combine them with the vast possibilities that exist in the digital and social media that people are using as channels of conversation today. We need to recognize Facebook as a WOM delivery channel. We need to recognize its power to move people as it did in the Arab Spring or Wall Street protests. We need to ferret out and generate interesting stories about our brands and their fans.

The times they are a changing. And most rapidly. It’s time for our thinking also to change. To see the reality of life today of those who would be our consumers. Those who would be our fans. Our brand ambassadors. Those who would listen to our stories and tell their friends their own stories about their experiences with our brands. Because it’s only when these conversations happen, that our brand stands to become interesting, liked and adopted. And then, even loved and recommended in turn.

Report from Spikes Asia 2010

Spikes Asia, now in its second year is fast becoming the region’s hot advertising festival, with a multitude of distinguished speakers jetting in from across the globe to join the their Asian colleagues to share their views on where the ‘ad world’ is going, or ought to be, to reach and engage the region’s changing consumers. Add to those engaging seminars, the Spikes Asia Awards, being judged by panels of eminent worldwide and Asian Creative Directors to spot the most innovative and engaging creative work across print, electronic, digital, outdoor, promo, design and integrated categories and the opportunities for young professionals to learn and shine at the Spikes Academy and the Young Spikes contests, not forgetting the after-hours parties typical of the industry, and you have a mind-opening experience for the region’s creative communicators.

No wonder the Sri Lankan delegation this year topped 38 industry professionals from its top agencies, who are once again looking optimistically at the industry’s future, and what they could transform it into with learnings from what is happening out there in Asia and the world. Sri Lanka also selected and sent two teams of young professionals to the Young Spikes contests this year, and has entered some work for the Awards as well.

Starting with the first session on Sunday afternoon, where three creative greats reviewed the most inspiring work that won at Cannes this year, all the sessions on the first full day on Monday clearly showed that the ad world is heading digital, not only because that’s where their consumers are spending an increasing portion of their time, but also because it presents opportunities to engage, influence and mobilize them for the benefit of their clients’ brands in a manner not known to the more traditional forms of advertising. The lesson for Sri Lanka’s marketers is to shed their skepticism and think more progressively in embracing digital advertising to reach their consumers who are now fast joining their counterparts across the region in enjoying their new ‘digital lifestyle’ – whether on the Internet, through their mobile phones or through other convergence devices that technology is rapidly enabling to as vehicles of the 21^st century lifestyle.

Digital media is different in many ways to traditional media – the most prominent feature being its two-way interactive capability. Its global connectivity and networking capability also gives digital media users the ability to share thoughts, conversations and good ideas instantly through social media channels becoming opinion leaders in brand building or destruction! And probably the best opportunity that has come about is for marketers to make today’s on-line consumers and communities co-creators of their brand story-telling and marketing campaigns.

The other key aspect that received attention was how CSR was becoming not just essential corporate good behaviour but a path to corporate success. Several presentations on the first full day threw up evidence and examples of this. Air Asia’s Group CEO the irrepressible Tony Fernandes showed how his airline was practicing the philosophy that CSR begins at home by first growing their rapidly growing team and championing their dreams. From becoming the airline with the most number of female pilots, including a Miss Thailand, in the region, to helping realize the dreams of young Malaysians as motorcycle racers and F1 drivers in their Lotus team, Tony walked the talked internally and then externally in helping communities-in-distress in post-tsunami Aceh and post-bombing Bali. David Jones, Global CEO of EuroRSCG showcased the One Young World programme he helped to found to bring together young people who would change the world. Dentsu Asia’s Digital Director Angeli Beltran underscored the CSR thrust in her talk that spoke of “Good Innovation” as businesses doing good for human sustainability and using digital communications as a catalyst for change.

The Spikes Debate moderated by WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell needled an eminent panel from Yahoo!, Nokia, Diageo and OCBC Bank to give their expert views on the challenges in Asia and how marketers and agencies were working together, or ought to be,  and using the new technology in building for the future.

Then came the agencies, from Ogilvy who showcased their Big IdeaL thinking, which connected a brand’s ‘best self’ to society’s challenges to realize the strategy and creative expression for their campaigns; and Leo Burnett who spread their “Humankind” philosophy that human purpose was the starting point to leveraging people, popular culture and participation to effect change; to JWT who underscored that time is the new currency and that brands had to create ideas that people wanted to spend time with; and Draft FCB who took the baton to drive that further with their finding that advertisers had no more than 6.5 seconds to capture a consumer’s attention and the proposition that a magical number and an inspiring insight may avoid the risk being ignored.

Campaign Asia interviewed BBDO’s worldwide chief Andrew Robertson to uncover his journey of success and his advice to young ad people. Microsoft Advertising’s Carolyn Everson talked about trends and insights in the new digital era, and sneak-previewed their new gaming X-box 360 – Kinect.  The inspirational talk of the day came from 78 year-old author of “The Power of One” and former CD of DDB Bryce Courtney who roared, wept, knelt and rolled on the floor in telling his amazing life story and exhorted the audience to realize their potential and their dreams.

Vision or the “image of the future we seek to create” is vital not only for the enterprise but also for aggregate industries and aspiring nations in providing direction, mobilizing people and driving growth. Nelson Mandela achieved his vision of a South Africa free from segregation and Barack Obama persists in driving his healthcare and Wall Street reforms together with a changed approach to foreign relations in his quest for a new America that protects and cares for its citizens.  In Sri Lanka, our apparel and tourism industries have bought into shared visions of what we could be and where we want to go and have taken steps which include ethical manufacture, eco-friendly operations and exclusive boutique hotels that our western customers demand, in pursuit of the vision.

How do Sri Lankan companies stack up when it comes to being truly visionary and what does it take to stand out on this count? The importance of painting and driving an inspiring Vision, has probably received less attention than it should in the rough and tumble of day-to-day business management. True, many companies have spent a lot of time and effort in writing up Vision Statements but many of them are less than inspirational, and remain as embellishments for corporate profiles and websites.

Corporate Vision is best generated by entrepreneurs and insightful business leaders who drive it from the top down in pursuit of their dreams. It requires the ability to spot trends and leverage opportunities while being committed to innovation, breaking new ground and sailing the ‘blue oceans’. Richard Branson, who uses his charisma to the fullest in driving his Virgin brand in a multiciplity of fields and pursuing his wildest dreams of commercial space travel, and Steve Jobs, who pursues his vision to ‘Think Different’ and create cool stuff that not only looks good but rides on aspirations and lifestyles as they do on technology, continue to amaze us with their on-going innovations and successes.

Sri Lanka has its share of business leaders who have led the transformation of their companies by responding to consumer trends, or international opportunities, or simply producing the good things they thought Sri Lankan consumers should enjoy. The best way to spot the visionary ones is to take those on LMD’s list and see where they were before and what they have now created. Family businesses and colonial companies have been transformed to meet the ethos, lifestyles and aspirations of today’s Sri Lankan consumer.

Vision is of the greatest importance for a company’s managers and employees, who have to believe, achieve and live the dream. Equally, effective communication of an inspiring and credible Vision plays a vital role in obtaining the consent of people for business transformations as it is for winning elections. The low voter turnout at the recent general elections indicates that Sri Lanka’s citizens were less than inspired by the Visions of any of the parties, despite the slogans and surreal visions of a first-world Sri Lanka that the TV commercials gave us a few months earlier. While the Idiri Dekma promises economic transformation, this can best be achieved if it is built less from the centre and more through inclusiveness and participation from all sectors public, private, NGO and civil society.

This brings me to my final point – that LMD should now put the spotlight on the last two mentioned sectors by creating a listing of the Most Respected NGOs/CSOs whose vital contribution to nation building has been overshadowed by our preoccupation with the business sector. My Vision for Sri Lanka is not only of an country measured by GNP growth but one that has achieved economic development with equitability and inclusiveness, bringing wide participation and distribution of wealth across all segments.

Nimal Gunewardena makes the case for Sri Lanka’s marketers to break-out from the shackles of the familiar traditional media and embrace the new media options that the Internet has spawned – from blogs to social media – and use SEO to get found by today’s information-and-entertainment-seeking consumer.
Despite the development of digital media and the Internet in particular and the trend for marketers the world-over to use this new media with its highly popular vehicles, from blogs to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn etc., marketers in Sri Lanka have resisted embracing these new possibilities, opting instead to stay with the familiar traditional media despite its higher costs and diminishing effectiveness and returns. Marketers trained and immersed in traditional marketing methods and media seem to find it too difficult to learn about these new options and how to use them.

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN
In my efforts as an evangelist for the use of PR to attain marketing objectives for brands that can ill-afford to use expensive traditional advertising on TV and radio, with its channel proliferation and audience fragmentation, I have been dismayed to find that even the most reputed marketing companies have given little thought to changing the status quo by shifting funds in their communication budgets from advertising to Marketing PR. Again the inertia stems from unfamiliarity with the possibilities of ‘Marketing PR’ as a tool to achieve one’s marketing objectives more effectively and cost-effectively through PR-led marketing programmes. This same syndrome of ‘staying with the familiar’, that thrives among marketing and brand managers who have fought shy of learning about and using the ‘new’, also resurfaces with New Media.
Sri Lankan marketers have cited the low penetration of home computers and Internet use for shunning digital media possibilities, despite evidence of a high degree of Internet activity in practice from office computers and ever-mushrooming cybercafes. Ad agency people also have failed to learn, master and advocate these new options even for markets and products where they make sense. A new cycle of re-learning therefore is a must for marketers as well as agency people if they are reap the benefits of the digital revolution and wake up to the realities of the information-seeking consumer of today who is not the ad-absorbing couch potato that they still believe exists.

TYRANNY OF THE KNOWN
Traditional communication using radio and TV advertising has relied on the proposition that if you hit consumers enough times with your message, they will buy your product. The related proposition that these “mass media” will deliver mass markets is true today only if sufficient money is spent to straddle multiple channels in a market where channel proliferation has fragmented the audience. The ‘push-marketing’ of old flies in the face of the new consumer who seeks information from his friends or on the ‘Net when he is considering a new purchase. It is this actively information-searching consumer that marketers need to understand and connect with.  Marketers today need to be ‘found’ by the searching consumer rather than bombarding the consumer, who by now has developed the means to block out advertising intrusions, both perceptually and with the remote control. Unfortunately the shotgun bombardment model has been applied by marketers even when they try to graduate to digital media by using e-mail ‘blasts’ to reach unidentified and unqualified ‘prospects’. Spam filters and the delete button effectively deals with such junk mail.

GETTING FOUND
If the trick is to ‘be found’ when the consumer is looking for you, your type of product or information regarding his needs that may be fulfilled by your product or service, we need to be at the places he visits daily on the ‘Net – Google, Facebook, blogs and the like. How we show up in these places or how we draw him to us has generated the concept of ‘inbound marketing’.
Companies originally started by establishing their presence on the ‘Net through a website. Many such corporate websites tended to be passive ‘brochure-ware’ – company brochures on the net.  Blogs and social media on the other hand are more dynamic places where people can go to connect and chat with others, obtain and share information, learn new stuff, or simply be entertained.  So marketers need to establish their brand presence on the ‘Net through a blog that is constantly generating new stuff that people would be attracted to come and check out or through a social media site such as Facebook that people visit frequently to connect with their friends, find new friends or join groups with similar interests. These sites provide for consumers and “fans” of the brand to link to your brand and share interesting news about your brand with others. Linking and sharing are two key aspects of social media.

SEARCH ENGINES
If ‘getting found’ by the consumer who is today empowered to search ‘on demand’ on the ‘Net when he wants to know something or check out a product is what it takes for brands to connect with consumers, then marketers need to learn how to use search engines such as Google (by far the dominant one on the ‘Net) to guide the consumer to his blog and brand. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) offers ways to do this without payment (organic search) or through paid listings such as Per Per Click (PPC) where you pay when someone clicks on the link in your advertisement. Search engines use ‘keywords’ that the searching consumer may key-in to make the connection.

Getting found on organic search results is better not only because is it free but because people tend to click 3 times more frequently on the organic results than on paid results. Including keywords, that the consumer may use when seeking information or a product or service he wants to purchase, in your pages helps you to be found. SEO media specialists will advise you and provide services to optimize your chances of being found and clicked through, based on their knowledge of how search engines work. Your chances of being found increase when links to your site appear on other authoritative sites. It’s like getting referrals from well known people.

BLOGS
Blogs are a more attractive form of website that you can create for your brand.  It is a place where you can and should post interesting content and articles regularly that will draw people interested in that subject area. It is like a watering hole or a clubhouse, where people can come and read interesting things you have to say about your field or the one your brand covers. Interested people can subscribe to your blog through RSS to be notified of any new content you have posted. Getting your blog linked to others of a similar or complementary nature, and promoting your posts through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or StumbleUpon helps to draw traffic to yours. Creating blog articles that are funny, intriguing, or on topics that are of interest to your consumer also does the same. You now have an opportunity to connect frequently with your consumers if you create interesting content that he will be drawn to. A frequently (recommended weekly) updated blog may take some doing, but it is the way that the new ‘journalist-marketer’ can create a following of fans and customers.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media also provides the means for your presence at places where people go everyday – such as Facebook. You may create a Page for your brand and you may draw fans to your page and in turn use it to drive traffic to your blog. Here is a place where your brand can draw fans who may exchange ideas with or pass on ‘word-of-mouth’ to other fans and customers. It is a place where you can engage with your fans and share interesting, useful information that consumers may appreciate, as long as it is not an outright sales pitch!

But you need to be prepared to have complaints as well as positive comments. Fear of ‘negative comments’ being broadcast, seems to make marketers shy of interacting with consumers on the ‘Net. You need to develop the mentality that this is an opportunity to hear exactly what consumer thinks about your brand or even a problem he had with it, get useful feedback and give constructive solutions. If you do not have the confidence to discuss about your brand openly with consumers and address any concerns they may have, you may be only sweeping any negativity under the carpet from where it will anyway disseminate through word-of-mouth or a hate site. Your fears may be mitigated when you know that Google and social media have privacy settings and other safeguards to block malicious comment.
The trick is to create interesting stuff around your brand that your followers will like and share with others through posting links to your page on their own home pages. Consider the social media option as an opportunity to network with an ever widening world of potential fans as your fans promote you to their friends.

EXPERIMENT, ENGAGE
The time has come for Sri Lanka’s marketers and agencies to experiment with and discover the potential of the new media options that are on the ‘Net to connect with today’s new emerging consumer who is increasingly spending time there. The time of push marketing, a la the traditional media model, is gone. Marketers need to engage consumers in interesting two-way communications. Marketers need to leverage the most powerful form of communication – word-of-mouth. Internet media is all about the new consumer who is connecting, linking, sharing. Sri Lanka’s marketers need to demonstrate willingness to graduate from older forms of communication which show diminishing returns and embrace, learn about and experiment with the new ones that the ever-evolving digital revolution has brought.

References:
•Halligan, Brian & Shah, Darmesh (2010) “Inbound Marketing”, Wiley.
•Get Found Online http://www.Hubspot.com
•Social Media and Business Marketing http://www.Hubspot.com
•How to use Facebook for Business http://www.Hubspot.com
•The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media http://www.marketo.com

Engagement is the new buzzword. But there’s more confusion than practice. And marketers continue in the familiar mode of bombarding eyeballs. So why haven’t our marketers adapted to the new reality? Have they not bought the case for abandoning eyeball bombardment in favour of engaging the hearts and minds of consumers? Do they still believe that bombardment of a switched-off consumer with an interruptive, repetitive 30 seconder will brainwash them into buying their brand? Let’s assess the case for moving from the traditional advertising forms into finding greater marketing effectiveness through engagement.

WHEN TV WAS YOUNG

Once upon a time in the last century, Sri Lankan audiences experienced TV for the first time in the late ‘70s. With one and then two channels for many years and the novelty of the new medium, families huddled together at prime time, sometimes with the intrusion of a less affluent neighbour, to watch those wonderful tear-jerking teledramas. With TV ratings running in the high 60s and 70s, as the then available diary research indicated, and TV rates unbelievably low to reflect state policy to make advertising available local small businesses as well, TV advertising soon became the most effective medium to move the sales curve. We’d make a ‘theme commercial’ and run it for an year or even two, and consumers would still watch it attentively, recall and talk about it, and it all worked very well. Even through the ‘80s and ‘90s TV rates were affordable, even for smaller brands, and effectiveness and return were unquestionable. With increasing channels and the advent of the remote control, came also the ‘Peoplemeters’ which could mechanically monitor even second by second channel surfing, though data was supplied by more usable 15 second blocks, and lo and behold – marketers had to come to grips with the reality that audiences had shrunk considerably! The remote enabled people to zap commercials and watch another programme till the one they were interested in actually started. Peoplemeter data would tell you that your TVC queued at the beginning of a long commercial line-up before a popular programme didn’t give you the return you expected.

SHRINKING AUDIENCES

All that is now history. Today, we have 13 terrestrial channels, and cable TV & DTH service providers offering in excess of 50 channels of quality international fare. TV ratings have dropped with the fragmentation of the audience between these channels. Only 5 programmes out of over 180,000 aired in 2007 had ratings over 15, down from 33 programmes in 2005 and 8 in 2006. 4 out of the 5 were the Sirasa Superstar finals and semis and the other was the ICC World Cup Final. Programmes commanding ratings between 10-15 were greater in number but had declined from 1,162 in 2005 to 573 in 2007, or a mere average of 1.5 programmes a day. In percentage terms, programmes with over 10% of households watching had declined from less than 1% in 2005 to a third of that figure by 2007. More than 93% of the programmes were watched by less than 3% of the audience (see pie chart for 2007 below).

Meanwhile, TV advertising costs have risen. A 30” TVC on a high-rated prime time teledrama which was Rs.22,000 in 2001 today is Rs.150,000 today. A spot on the main news which was Rs.30,000 in 2001 costs Rs.70,000 today. Of course, the media specialist agencies are now here to help you identify and make the best buys at much better rates making use of their media research and planning know-how and buying clout and or volume discounts.

COMMERCIAL BOMBARDMENT

While marketers have sought to combat the changes in the media environment and declining value with greater buying efficiencies, they appear not to have questioned the effectiveness of repetitive TV commercial amidst the clutter. On an average day Sri Lankan audiences are bombarded with 3,379 commercial exposures of all kinds, including 1,319 TV commercials of varying length from 15-45 seconds. A viewer watching prime time TV between 7-10 pm on any one of the popular channels would be bombarded with between 43 to 113 commercial exposures depending on the channel.

RECALL & RETURN

Day-after-recall rates are declining judging by international studies (see figure above) though this appears not to have been measured locally in this manner. TV stations offer freebies and discounts to compensate and get their share of the pie, though freebies need to be evaluated carefully based on what kind of spots one is getting and where. Media planners use reach & frequency models to optimize effectiveness and return. Now, to what extent marketers and their media planning agencies use the decay curves to optimize their bursts and budgets depends on the sophistication of both. Marketers also see the need to invest in multiple productions and high-impact ones to keep consumers from getting bored with their commercials and maintain entertainment value.

Of course, all this is about what marketers and their agencies can do to make good the one-way communication, which is what the traditional advertising forms are all about. But how many of the commercials and ads that we produce really engage our target audiences? In an era of commercial bombardment and information overload, how effective are we in breaking through the clutter and perceptual blocks for a start, and then influencing consumers with our messages and images to make them show up on our sales curves? One has to be really clever or ‘creative’ to do commercials that make consumers love and want our brands. Being too clever may win awards but make no impact on sales, and this is a danger that ad award contests sometimes bring about. If we are in the one-way mode, do we know whether our commercials have worked – been seen, influenced and moved consumers to love and buy our brands? Only research and the sales curve will tell you.

ENGAGEMENT

But moving away from the one-way bombardment model, what the new dictum of engagement tells us is that we need to ‘involve’ i.e. sufficiently engross consumers with our brand and get them to ‘interact’ with it so that they are stimulated in the mind and consequently activated in the heart. Turning products and brands into “lovemarks” this way is what will keep consumers coming back for more, showing the brand off or recommending it to others.

IPTV, when it comes to Sri Lanka soon as promised by SLT, will provide a platform for interactivity between the marketer and his audience. How those possibilities are catered to and used by marketers has yet to be seen.

IPTV : Internet Protocol TV which uses a broadband connection, set top box & TV not only provides flexible and high-definition viewing of TV channels but also interactivity between the network and viewer and several ‘on demand’ services such as additional video-on-demand entertainment. Flexibility is provided through ‘time shift’ or the ability to recall, store and watch broadcast material at a convenient time, possibly skipping commercials. Important to marketers is the interactivity provided by the two-way connection between the service provider and the viewer, which allows assessment of viewing preferences and the ability to make the viewing experience more interactive and personalized. Possibilities of interactive TV include the use of voting and quizzes as well as TV shopping and direct response marketing opportunities.

Till real interactive TV develops, and as even then it will be only for those with broadband access, we need to see what kinds of other TV options and formats may work better than commercials per se. People watch certain kinds of programmes that they like, and the new reality shows are becoming more engrossing than the teledramas. Sponsored and branded programming can keep the audience engaged with your brand for 30 minutes, which is better than 30 seconds! However, having a branded backdrop alone doesn’t have qualitative value as it just jars your brand name and eventually becomes wallpaper. Marketers and agencies need to work with content and programme producers to create programming that personifies the brand and involves the brand’s target audiences through ‘reality show’ or participatory formats. ‘Live’ phone-ins are another mechanism to make TV and radio
shows interactive.

Moving beyond mainstream media like TV and radio, creating brand engagement requires us to identify the various touch-points where the potential consumer could interact with the brand in a positive manner. We need to understand our target consumers’ interests, habits and leisure pursuits and determine which of these provide the opportunity to create branded environments and experiences where the brand becomes an integral and enjoyable part of such experiences. Branded outlets and events are such possibilities but there needs to be commitment and investment to pursue these on an owned, long-term basis rather than as one-offs.

The web, with its social media and blogs, provides us with the ability to interest and interact with our target audiences, provided they have internet access. Computer penetration and internet access locally is still rather low with less than 10% of Sri Lankan home having computers, though penetration is relatively higher in more affluent households (see chart below) and access of the internet may be much higher than official estimates (around 232,00) due to access from cybercafés and offices. ITU estimates 771,700 internet users and 63,300 broadband users as of March 2008. RNCOS, a leading global market research and analysis company, in a recently released report of Sri Lanka’s ICT market, indicates a CAGR of 144% in broadband subscribers during 2001-2007, and a CAGR of 40% in Internet users in the period 2004-2007. The digital frontier would therefore be worth exploring at least for certain brands.

Just creating a blog or a purely commercial blog does not guarantee success, and one needs interesting information, news, activities, networking opportunities and things to see, do and interact to draw visitors to it on a regular basis creating a special interest community.

Elakiri.com is among the top ten blogs and websites visited by Sri Lankans. (The other 9 include the most visited global sites such as Google, Facebook & YouTube.) Started 2 years ago and billed as the “Largest Sri Lankan On-line Community” it boasts of over 100,000 members and provides members, who can enroll free, with downloads of songs and videos directly from artists and access to a photo gallery, discussions, and articles. Members can also post topics and upload photos, respond to polls, play arcade games and communicate with other members.

These are the challenges of the new media environment to the adventurous and innovative marketer and his creative agency. Media agencies that seek to transcend traditional media need to have creative thinkers who dream up and design such creative interaction and engagement options. A true engagement agency will not be the traditional media or creative agency of old but an innovative creator of experiences and interaction opportunities.

The sooner we question our marketing communication practices and their effectiveness and move from counting and bombarding eyeballs into creating interesting, interactive branded experiences that stimulate our targets’ minds and pull at their heartstrings, the more effective we will be as brand marketers in today’s new and constantly changing world.