» Digitization of Offline Media

Account Planners and Digital Strategists

Jose Villa — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:51:26 +0000

A question I have thought about since we created a Strategy group at Sensis in 2006 is whether the role of a traditional Account Planner would one day merge with that of a Digital Strategist. As digital and traditional advertising continue to converge, it seems likely from a client perspective – the idea of two distinct siloed positions can’t possibly be sustainable.

On the other hand, I think about the incredible complexity of the digital strategy world and the trend towards specialization and wonder if merging the Planner and Digital Strategist is feasible? For instance, with the rise of unique digital areas of specialty / expertise such as information architecture, user experience planning, analytics and social media, the role of digital strategist appears to to be too much of a simplification and generalist position out of sync with the rapid changes in digital communications?

What do you think?

It’s all about engagement

Jose Villa — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:39:06 +0000

I’ve been preaching for a while that the old, closed brand management model based on awareness, reach and frequency is dead. The shift to all things digital is rapidly changing the advertising business to a new paradigm – based on open brand stewardship, insights, impact and most of all ENGAGEMENT.

This same shift is taking place in the Hispanic advertising world. I just wrote an article for MediaPost looking more closely at this big change in how we develop advertising programs aimed at Hispanics. What do you think?

Jose Villa

Online ad spend dips in the 1st quarter of 2009

Jose Villa — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:48:53 +0000

Did you hear that Internet ad spending was down last quarter 5% from the same period last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau? The dip last quarter also represented a 10% drop from the fourth quarter of last year.

The question arises, is this a sign of a trend away from online advertising to other media or is it just the result of the overall ad spend pie decreasing so much that online was unable to escape it’s effects?

I say the latter.

More than anything, it was the result of one of the most irrational pull-backs in media ad spend in advertising history, more a result of an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and anxiety than a concern about the ROI of digital advertising.

Check out this LA Times piece discussing the news and my quotes on the news.

Adam Carolla’s Podcast

Jose Villa — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:55:31 +0000

As an life-long Angelino, I listen to my fair share or radio – both music and talk formats. While not a regular listener, I would occasionally listen to the syndicated Adam Carolla show, broadcast from LA on the former FM talk radio station KLSX. Growing up in LA, I’ve listened to Adam since his days on KROQ’s Ken & Bean show as Mr. Birchum, and then on the Sex Line show.

An interesting thing happened on February 20, 2009 – KLSX’s owner, CBS radio, shifted the station to the less expensive Top 40 format and in effect cancelled the popular Adam Carolla show. Just another victim of the recession and the downturn in the media and advertising industry, right?

Instead of just riding off into the radio sunset, Adam Carolla decided to continue his popular show and just move it to a different format – a Podcast. On February 23, 2009, Adam began a daily podcast at www.carollaradio.com. In the initial 24 hours, the first Adam Carolla podcast was downloaded over 250,000 times and, as of the third podcast, it was the number one podcast on iTunes in both the U.S. and Canada. During the debut week, the Adam Carolla podcast recorded 1.6 million downloads. In the second week it recorded 2.4 million downloads.

I just started listening to the Podcast yesterday, one of about 15 Podcasts I listen to when I’m on the Metro train heading home. However, after listening to Adam Carolla’s Podcast on the train, I decided to continue listening to it on the short 10 min drive from the train station to my house. Interestingly enough, I was listening to Adam’s interview the Sports Guy Bill Simmons, and Adam asked him what he thought the future of radio and Podcasts was. Simmons’ answer was that Podcasts and Internet radio , would kill satellite radio. He spared terrestial radio in his futurecast.

I tend to agree with Bill Simmons. Internet-enabled cars are only a few years away. In fact, the technology is already here. Moreover, formats like Podcasts provide consumers with same on-demand abilities they have come to know and love from their TIVOs. There is no doubt that the rapid success of Adam Carolla’s Podcast is a sign of the future of the media business. Radio beware.

Jose Villa