Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Milena Kvapil, Creative Director, Media Impact Serbia
Does it seem to you as well that each season we have some new ingenious invention that will turn the world of communications upside down overnight, and will shift the advertising industry to some completely new direction? It used to be digital as the innovative media, then social networks as a new channel, then the Millennials as THE target group, followed by “disruptive” as HOT approach to creativity … The reality is that we are very much in need of innovation, but on the other hand we have to be aware that there is no magic solution, nor will there ever be!
Creative use of media which is being talked about a lot, and which is in recent years increasingly getting its own special category at the advertising festivals, is more than just another buzzword. It’s actually not a novelty. The thing is that the need for a different approach to advertising is gaining more and more recognition, both from the perspective of clients, as well as from the creative and media agencies, but also from the perspective of media. The fact is that the amount of messages that come to us every day is becoming meaningless. We are talking about thousands of information we receive on a daily basis, and a significant volume of that communication chaos relates to advertising messages. The natural reaction is to close our eyes, ears and brain or simply ignore the forest of information. When was the last time you watched a TV commercial to the end? When was the last time you read a newspaper ad, clicked on a banner or a sponsored post on Facebook?
More than one fifth of internet users now use ad blockers, and more and more people watch TV content via digital services that enable skipping of commercial breaks. What is clear is that we cannot discontinue advertising. We can only try to figure out how to serve them so that they would reach the target group, and to draw attention of the audience to accept and understand the message in the first place, and then to somehow engage them! Here we come to what is new – we can no longer take the old-trodden path: Brief – strategy – slogan – TV spot – radio – billboard – banner. This “fire all weapons and you’re bound to hit somewhere” approach not only proved to be too expensive, but also very inefficient. Each brief is a new task, each new campaign requires a tailor-made approach. There are several ways that the media can be used “creatively” – we can invent entirely new channels, use existing in an unusual way, or what is the most common and most effective approach, combine different channels and formats to get the perfect mix in qualitative and quantitative terms.
Although the creative use of the media is something that creative agencies – and to some extent the media agencies – have been dealing with for quite some time now, lately even the media companies have activated themselves in this field. Globally one of the most successful examples is the New York Times and their T Brand Studio. Recognizing the need to animate their readers in a new way, but also to attract advertisers, The New York Times has formed a team of creatives, journalists, designers and video producers, which creates high-quality content for advertisers and serves them to their readers in a variety of formats. At home turf, the same idea was implemented by Ringier Axel Springer, which has transformed its advertising sector in an integrated sales brand Media Impact, in which there is a creative team whose task is to develop and produce content for clients and placing it through proper channels, both in print, and online.
The advantage of media houses first and foremost is the in-depth knowledge of their own channels, both in terms of content, as well as on the technical side, and the ability to purposely create new formats or platforms and other solutions that can be adequately commercialized for the needs of advertisers. It may be, for example, a new section, categories on the site, new display formats, micro-site platforms and similar when it comes to the digital world, and for the press they can design and produce special editions, non-standard formats, special supplements. A successful example of a non-standard use of the classic print format is the special birthday edition of Blic magazine, when the entire issue was designed so that all the content was drawn and illustrated by the comic artist Marko Somborac. In addition to editorial content, the issue came out with eight original drawn ads for significant local and international clients, by which advertisers were provided with added value compared to classic media buying. At this year’s SEMPL festival in Portorož, this work was shortlisted in the category of Innovative use of media channels. When it comes to the online world, it is also possible to set up completely new platforms that have both informative and entertaining character, and defined commercial potential, as is the case with the recently launched media platform noizz.rs which is designed to cover a target group of Generation C – Connected, which so far has not been sufficiently represented in national online portals.
The conclusion that can be drawn from all this is that all the “players” in the advertising and media industry should be aware that they are participating in a competition whose rules are constantly changing, and that it is necessary, literally at each future brief, to find new solutions both on the strategic and creative sides, and on the media side.
Case study for illustrated issue of Blic magazine: