By Liz Penton, Integrated Communications Planning Lead, Innocean
Another day, another plan bleeding rows of TARPs and CPMs. After a decade in the trenches of comms planning for the world’s biggest brands I’ve learned our industry is fundamentally obsessed with the wrong thing.
Ad land worships the traditional reach plan, while ignoring the power of cultural influence.
This obsession with old school reach results in emotionless plans that are fuelled by cheap media, where planners mistake efficiency for effectiveness. They ignore the death spiral of linear TV, yet act surprised when people tune them out. It’s the habit of turning a blind eye to data that helps reveal who people really are, overlooking the very human behind the ad.
While your plan is gathering dust, real people are just…living and shaping their life through culture. They’re listening to their favourite podcast on Monday, playing Futsal Tuesday, streaming a new series on Thursday and watching e-sports on Sunday.
That’s not a reach plan. That’s a cultural ecosystem.
And while our industry is in a battlefield of fragmented media and declining attention. The truth is, you’re not losing attention because it’s hard to get. You’re losing attention because you’re building boring plans that ignore real people’s interests.
It’s time to stop making excuses. Here’s how you drag your plans out of the dark ages and start making an impact.
Firstly stop deprioritising culture. Ignoring it is costing you.
Still pouring millions of dollars into dying channels because they were proven 30 years ago? Culture isn’t a risky line item, it’s the force that moves and shapes your audience. Culture lives and breaths throughout media and has the power to command attention and generate brand relevancy.
A recent report shows ad land burns through nearly $287 billion on boring, dull, ineffective media. Meanwhile, culture is where actual human attention lives, and it’s really not that hard to capture. Now is the time to adapt, not because it’s trendy but because irrelevance is the only other option.
Your audience isn’t a demo. They’re fans.
To understand culture, you need to invest in data that makes sense of cultural signals and sees people as more than a 25-54 age bracket. Try switching it up and start with the cultural interest first. From punk rock to park runs, explore how broad and diverse fans really are. You’ll be surprised who shows up. & yes, 50 year olds still go to punk rock shows. Stop stereotyping and start seeing them.
Go beyond the traditional pale, male and stale partner lists.
You can’t reflect culture if all your partner audiences all look and think the same. Deliberately expand your partner briefing and think how you might be able to include new media and partners who speak to marginalised and non conventional groups. If you’re a planner that chooses not to invest in media that serves these communities, it signals one thing: you’re not interested in them.
Unleash your partners. They aren’t vending machines.
Whether it be creators, a gaming partner or a musician, stop sending rigid briefs and expecting magic. You are stepping into their domain. They built their following, they know their community and know their influence. Trust them, pay them fairly and co-create something worth paying attention to. The results will speak for themselves.
Lastly, embrace fearless creativity or the work stays boring.
The biggest cultural opportunities aren’t killed by clients. They die from a thousand internal cuts of hesitation. It takes one act of uncertainty to completely drain life from a promising plan.
In ad land, cultural partnerships are often the last line to be added onto a plan and the first to be cut. Challenge your approach to planning. What if culture was the first line on the plan, with an entire strategy and multichannel ecosystem around it? Or what if you looked at the hidden cultural opportunities within your existing channels? The best work requires dedication and creativity; keep pushing forward.
So, what’s it going to be?
Are you going to deliver the same traditional, dust collecting plan that gets built without a thought? Or are you going to build something that becomes part of the culture that people actually crave?
The choice is yours.
Top image: Liz Penton