Age of the Screen threatens traditional advertising

The context is not new, as Dr Ludi Koekemoer, rector of the AAA School of Advertising in South Africa says, we've heard it all before: more money is being spent on new media coming from digital opportunities for marketers; the traditional ad agency will be dead in a couple of years because if “we hang onto our heritage, we'll become dinosaurs”; “digital agencies will take everyone into the future and students must know how to create for ‘screenagers'”; and the shift from mass communications (broadcasting) is to narrow casting...

Speaking exclusively to Bizcommunity.com, Koekemoer said the following question had to be pondered: “What do we have to do as an academic institution to go where the industry is heading? Are we teaching what we need to be teaching?”

The fact is, says Koekemoer, new media and social networking creates new forms of advertising, students know more about technology than their lecturers, and the integration of old and new is key. It is the ‘Age of the Screen': TV, computers, home theatre, mobile phone, portable DVD, iPods, games, in-store screens, billboards, personal in-flight screens, in-auto screens, in-room screen (ie hotels), PowerPoint, ATMs, POP screens, kiosks, home appliances, home security, etc.

Changes in mass media, new media and the fact that ad agencies are not keeping up with new technologies, particularly in South Africa, means that marketers are going direct to new media for solutions.

New strategies

Says Koekemoer: “We are moving from TV, radio and print to websites, blogs, picture galleries, video, and direct dialog (chat forums) with the consumer. After a lifetime of relying on ad agencies, marketers are responding to the new media landscape and social networks and finding strategies that work: multimedia digital platforms that send a single focused interactive message to individual consumers. In-game-advertising (IGA) is growing at 55% pa; the flexibility and real-time feedback of new media ensures that advertisers can refine campaigns and only pay for results; and the ‘new Internet' creates the platform for two-way traffic on a scale never before imagined in human history.”

The future direction of the industry resides in its future talent and that is why institutions such as the Triple A are transforming to reflect the massive shifts in the advertising industry globally. Koekemoer recently chaired a session in Washington on advertising schools, following on a year during which international educators in the industry, including himself, did research into industry education.

While mainstream mediums such as TV, radio, print and outdoor still reflect 90% of marketing spend in SA, new media is featuring more and more and current curriculums must reflect new learnings in these subjects, Koekemoer affirms.

“There are things happening in the marketplace so fast, an explosion of technological advances creating new media opportunities. The marketers are going to deal with the media far more direct than before. It's a whole new ballgame. Many agencies have lost their strategic thinking ability and painted themselves into a corner. Yes, many consumers are not yet techno-savvy, but they are catching up fast.”

The Age of the Screen

He continues: “People treat screens (mobile, iPods, etc) as they do people... they are emotional about it, touch it... people spend an obscene amount of time with their new technology... and students know more about these new technologies than their lecturers.”
Things can't change overnight as curriculum changes have to be approved by the relevant higher education authorities and, of course, the basic principles of marketing and advertising teachings remain the same.

“The basic principles won't change, that of effective, persuasive communications,” explains Koekemoer. “We have to lay the foundations with the basic principles of knowledge; current curricula must be supplemented with new teachings focusing on interactive, applied learning; and in South Africa both lecturers and students must also embrace the new challenges of the spectrum of screens; the explosion of new technologies; and the growing need for consumer interaction and their ability to avoid messages.

“We believe we will lead the way as universities can't turn around as fast.”

Koekemoer explains that the Triple A will be bringing techno-savvy people on board as guest lecturers to bring staff and final year students up to speed on new developments.

“We are an advertising school and I need to deliver an employable graduate. There is no point in delivering an ‘old era' graduate - even if the industry hasn't moved on yet. We must prepare our students as communication professionals with the following knowledge and skills:

• Basic principles of effective, persuasive communication. TV, radio, print, OOH isn't dead. It still makes up more than 90% of ad spend.
  
• Strategic thinking: long live the big idea!
  
• Effective cross cultural communication: expose them to multicultural experiences locally and internationally.
  
• Transmedia thinking: ‘many to one' focus where the market helps define and create the brand message. The consumer participates and interacts.

International thinking

In fact, Koekemoer says, any of the issues being faced by marketers and ad agencies today were being raised internationally as far back as 1995. He quotes from a University of Texas white paper, which stated that:

1. It is inevitable that above-the-line media will decline.
   
2. The future will see a blending of traditional mass media and one-to-one interactivity.
   
3. The dynamics of how consumers interface with the new media must be studied and understood.
   
4. Increasing globalisation places unique demands on ad agencies to evolve into either specialists (high-tech) or generalists.
   
5. The digital era is opening up exciting opportunities for advertising people.
   

And on a final note, what was discussed in April in Washington between advertising and marketing academics, included the following viewpoints, according to Koekemoer:

• Clients, consumers and technology drive change through cost-conscious clients; changing behaviour and buying patterns by consumers; dynamic new media alternatives.
  
• Clients and ad agencies need techno savvy graduates with the 4 Cs: Communication ability; Critical thinking ability; Creativity/innovation orientation; Contemporary (in with new media).
  
• Training and education should only happen in 3 - 4 years. Lifelong learning should take place in order to: avoid the silo; promote professional and personal development; obtain broader and specific perspectives; and increase knowledge, skills and confidence.