Three More Things Not To Think About.

Last week I presented a short list of things about which one should go to lengths not thinking about during the dog days of summer while the air is hot and heavy and the vacations are never quite long enough.

I, alas, do not get a break until the last week of August.

This week I’d like to present faithful readers with three more things you will not need to worry your spreadsheet-addled minds with when escaping the city or soaking up recirculated air.

1. Anything that says “Cross-media” or “Integrated”
Why would this be something you don’t need to think about? Because it has yet to ever be anything you should think about it. When the notion of “cross-media” and “integrated” first made its way to the land of webvertising everyone was very excited. It is questionable that anyone knew what was meant by the terms when people used them in conversation. In the old days, someone would tell you that cross-media packages or integrated media opportunities meant marrying online with offline media. But ask what that means, and the answer you got sounded an awful lot like just clumping a bunch of media vehicles together for a chance at some one-stop shopping.

Some attempts were made by a few advertisers to use each medium and have them work together to play off each others’ strengths (think of the Nike ads that led a viewer to the web to see the conclusion to their spot). But nothing much has every really come from here.

Today, of course, when we hear ‘cross-media’ it is most often referred to research on the impact online media has on the overall media mix. This information is valuable, but it is a tad repetitive. So far, each and every study has shown us that increased spending online means an incremental lift in reach and frequency and, therefore, GRPs. I’m wondering if anything new is going to come from this.

What I’d like to know is why is it always 15% of total ad spend that is necessary?

2. Senseless research the body of pointless PR
These come at us early and often. Fewer people swapped music files after the record industry threatened to sue those who engage in file swapping… People are more receptive to advertising they like versus advertising they don’t like… Bigger ads are more noticeable than smaller ads…

Are these necessary?

The endless parades of press releases which pass themselves off as legitimate research are tiresome and I want them out of my email inbox and out of the press. These kinds of things are like Britta issuing a report that says they conducted a study finding that people liked the taste of clean water. But a reputable research company issuing a study that says “Netizens Hate Pop-Ups” is not to inform the community at large of something they were not aware. It is a no-longer-shameless attempt at getting and/or keeping their name in front of the community from whom they solicit clients.

3. Forecasts
Okay. Actually, I look at these a lot. And I use figures from them conversationally or to prove a point about industry prospects for which I have scant data. But let’s face it, they are so often meaningless. There are the Byzantine proclamations from Forrester to the downright confounding mythic astrological readings from the Oracle of Delphi somewhere hidden inside the offices Jupiter.

It would be great to see for once from those that seek to prognosticate ad spending, rich media deployment or the use of online as an ad medium by general market advertisers a published record of the accuracy of these predictions. For example, something that places the predicted spending level online for 2003 alongside actual spending for online in 2003.

So, there you have it. These are just a few more things to take off your list of concerns while kicking back and taking in the last weeks of summer.

By Jim Meskauskas
Courtesy of http://www.MediaPost.com