Media should harness the power of the people

PEOPLE ARE the best media, said Barry Cupples, CEO of the Omnicom Media Group for Central and Eastern Europe, at a recent conference in Bratislava. The conference "Revealing the Future Potential of Media", organized by the Omnico Media Group (OMG), an international advertising holding company, featured ten top experts who shared their views on the new directions of media and marketing at the conference on May 17.

Barry Cupples: "Now everyone has a voice and wants to use it."
photo: Omnico Media Group

PEOPLE ARE the best media, said Barry Cupples, CEO of the Omnicom Media Group for Central and Eastern Europe, at a recent conference in Bratislava. The conference "Revealing the Future Potential of Media", organized by the Omnico Media Group (OMG), an international advertising holding company, featured ten top experts who shared their views on the new directions of media and marketing at the conference on May 17.

"At the basic level, all that marketing is trying to do is influence people," Cupples said while describing the need for a transition to a new model of marketing - where classical media are only means and the people themselves become "media".

"Now everyone has a voice and wants to use it," said Cupples. He continued that new marketing strategies should involve creating informative or interesting advertisements that will attract people and motivate them to talk about the advertisements and the brands they promote. Marketing agencies should thus target the "talkers", who Cupples called "influencers", by using new technological trends, especially the internet.

"Catch the new wave before it catches you...and enjoy the ride," he added.

The increase in the number of media, their concentration, globalisation and the 'new media' are what Marcela Podoláková, CEO of OMG Slovakia said are the key factors in the media situation these days.

She also mentioned the growing "clutter" in media, the extreme amount of advertising that is "attacking" the public on a daily basis.

People see more than 16,000 adverts a day, said Branislav Kobár, managing director of media services agency OMD.

The internet and the challenges it creates for the more traditional types of media was discussed as well.

"The most significant feature of world wide web of tomorrow is that the users themselves will create its content," said Ivan Debnár, senior Project Manager of the Zoznam.sk internet portal. The most popular sites include blogs, photo galleries and forums and message boards covering a wide range of topics, many of which are outside the mainstream.

A transformation is happening. The passive internet user is turning into one who chooses the topics he wants to read, said Debnár, adding that thanks to internet browsers, people have access to more sites than ever before and they also want to create content on the web. However, Debnár said that user-generated content on Slovak websites is in its infancy and lacking in quality as well.

"The traditional publisher has the largest potential for gaining new online readers," said Jaroslav Matyáš, Online Projects Director from Trend Holding (publisher of economics weekly Trend).

Even though Trend's website reaches a broader audience, the print version still generates more profit. Therefore, Matyáš said, the publisher has to focus on avoiding the cannibalisation of its original product. The event wrapped up with a discussion between marketing and media representatives about the potential and impact of the digitalisation of the media.

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