How ‘owned audiences’ can offer publishers and agencies a viable future
The opportunities to ignore advertising haven’t just increased – they’re overpowering opportunities to advertise at all. That’s why, says Henry Innis, a future of ‘owned audiences’ could be the way forward.
You’ve probably heard the term ‘native content’ over the past year or so. It’s one of the critical hot topics as audiences rather than advertising space becomes the battle-ground for marketing dollars.
Agencies grew in a time when they were tasked with building deliverables and, by extension, capabilities. A client had a specific piece of ad space or a website or a social media page and the agency had a job to deliver the best messaging for the client possible.
They used their capabilities and process around ‘delivery’ to make that process balance efficiency (of managing client budget) and effectiveness (of making something people didn’t hate).
That ‘space’ is quickly evaporating. People are now able to switch between screens during a TV ad break. They can install ad-blockers on their browser. The opportunities to ignore advertising haven’t just increased – they’re overpowering the opportunities to advertise at all.
Great piece, though the last paragraph is pretty grim if you prefer integrity to holding companies.
For me, it’s not really about the acquisition of an audience. You can do that with a media spend. What you’re actually buying is trust. The real trick is to not immediately erode that trust as soon as you try to commercialise.
It’s easier for new media companies to make this transition, especially if you set audience expectations so low that your branded content is actually better than your native stuff (à la Buzzfeed).
It’s much harder for traditional media brands. Their whole existence is predicated on an assumed relationship to truth. People notice when you replace this with Cheetos. You only need to take a quick look at the comments section on basically any Vice article to get a sense of the seething resentment you’ll cause if you let standards drop too far.
All that said, I think you’ve drawn a pretty accurate sketch of the future of publishing. Whether I like it or not.
Great article, I really enjoyed reading it. thanks!
I think you just invented a TV station.