Roger Beasley on Future of Advertising

OurBlook interviews Roger Beasley, vice-president and director of strategic planning for Erwin-Penland.

Social media are transforming the way that companies conduct PR and marketing campaigns. Can you explain the changes you have seen?

RB: Social media are fast becoming a “given” of every communication effort. In fact, “Let’s make sure we have a social media component in the plan” has to be the most common phrase in marketing these days.

But as important as it is to plan an execution, I believe the planning stage is where social media are transforming PR and marketing campaigns the most. All of a sudden, the attitudes, opinions, wants, needs and desires we used to have to glean from focus groups and gut instincts are right at our fingertips. All we have to do is plug in and listen to what real people are saying in real time.

Does that inform how we attack the social media component of the plan? Yes. But more importantly, the social space informs us on what other vehicles we should use and influences the content and tone of the overall plan. In short, the social space is helping us develop communications that are more relevant to ensure that at whatever touch point, the brand is communicating appropriately.

Social media are a great communications tool, but in my opinion, transformational when it comes to planning.

How is this affecting the journalism world, particularly newspapers that have been focused on traditional, ad-supported models? While Craigslist is usually cited for the demise of classifieds, is there anything other than the economic downturn to blame for the decline in display ads?

RB: I think this ties back to relevance. Take newspapers, for instance. I don’t think the ad-supported model is dead. I think the content has become less relevant. In today’s Internet based society, breaking news is old news in a matter of minutes. So if your content is going to be based around “breaking news,” you better become a platform for the discussion of it rather than simply delivering it. Then you become relevant to an audience and become of value to advertisers. Printing what happened yesterday is a waste of time.

How does this impact classifieds? If the paper is irrelevant, so is all of its content, including classifieds. Out of sight, out of mind.

Figure out what is relevant that you can actually deliver, then deliver it. That will bring a defined audience and ultimately ad revenue.

Are magazines in the same boat as newspapers? If sleek, prosperous Gourmet magazine had to fold because of plummeting advertising, is there really much hope for other publications? What can they do to retain and gain advertising?

RB: One has to address cause and effect. Yes, Gourmet was a beautiful, well crafted publication “targeting” the upscale food crowd.  But I’d ask this, how well did they know their audience? While the content was nice to look at and robust, was it actually what this specific audience was looking for? Listen. Develop a more intimate knowledge of your audience. Understand their true needs, wants and desires. Give them the content they seek ... audiences will grow and advertisers will follow.

Is there anything else you would like to say about advertising and print media?

RB: Contrary to popular belief, advertising and print media aren’t dead. How else are we going to discover new products, new services, new opinions and new news if we’re only participating in conversations about things we already know about?  Online conversations in the social space aren’t replacing passive communications as some would lead you to believe, they are being fueled by it.  To that end, advertising and print media may actually be more important than they were 10, 20 years ago.

But that doesn’t mean it’s business as usual. We have to do a much better job at recognizing what’s relevant, spending more time listening in the social space and reacting to our learning rather than simply finding more ways to talk. If we don’t ensure relevance, one thing’s for sure, the social conversation we so desperately seek will be short and sweet if it occurs at all.

(Editor's Note: Erwin-Penland is one of the largest advertising/marketing firms in the Southeast and a division of Interpublic Group’s Hill Holliday. Roger has advertising and strategic planning experience for brands such as Denny’s, Verizon Wireless, and Hardee’s.)

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