By Tom Mueller, Appalachian State University
There’s a race underway at many academic institutions. A mass communication movement is working to build media interactivity, where the potential for convergence occurs. Convergence is a somewhat mythical place where all things come together into a concurrent stream of messaging and effect. To succeed, one needs to disseminate media through multiple channels. Where a print communication might have succeeded in the past, one must now craft the story, get it to press, post the blog entry, tweet the copy, launch the YouTube promo, alert LinkedIn and Facebook contacts and find a marketing partner to infuse revenue. It’s all in a day’s work for the modern, educated and converged communication professional.
A weblog created for the non-profit Center of Innovation in College Media stated that the University of Missouri now features a degree in “convergence journalism.” Department chair Lynda Kraxberger reported that students are given the opportunity to tell stories in the traditional way, but also integrate “information delivery platforms” such as live blogs and mobile devices. Terry Eiler, a professor at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication, is quoted on the weblog regarding Ohio University’s graduate multimedia program. “At the core of the curriculum is the ability to learn,” Eiler said. “You don’t teach a software package – you teach the ability to learn.”
If learning is essential within the new convergence model, how must we, as advertising educators, modify and adapt our curricula? Advertising offers an essential component within the mass media industry; some would portend that adverting fuels media, which allows for free press, which fires the engines of democracy. With that relevant deliverable in our tool kit, we must find traction as we craft our own convergence initiatives.
A recent Wall Street journal article stated that IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller was targeting investment activity for Hulu, the website that serves as a portal for TV programming from Fox, NBC and ABC, among others. Securities analyst Kerry Rice was quoted in the article and stated, “It’s been difficult to figure out the right way to monetize content on the Internet, but the popularity of sites like Hulu has proven this will be an area of Internet and media convergence that is going to be a huge opportunity.”
There’s that term convergence once again, and in this place and time, it’s about profitability. The Associated Press reported that Hulu has “struggled to make money despite its popularity as an ad-supported site” and that subscription fees could be enacted in 2010. In a world where media, advertising and consumers converge, the essential missing component is money – at least not enough of it at present. Teaching students to search for profitability as part of a media convergence model is a necessity. Business entities build plans that generate and increase revenues, and advertising is an essential component of the revenue stream. We must tell the story of converged advertising communication and build profit-motivated communicators.
At Appalachian State, we’re empowered to develop syllabi and create content within courses that best serves our students. With empowerment comes responsibility. It seems appropriate to reconfigure the deliverables in courses such as fundamentals of advertising (COM 2700) and media sales (COM 4300). The course titles beg the question: Just what is fundamental and what are we selling within converged media?
Much of what is foundational will remain. We need to create our product’s unique selling proposition, identify the call to action, discover our target audience and define the segment we wish to influence. Future think for advertising educators will expand to messaging that travels down alternate paths for disparate destinations. Marshall McLuhan is renowned for stating “the medium is the message.” New York Times media critic David Carr reframed the discussion and said, “The people formerly known as the audience (are) too busy making content to consume much of it…the medium is not the message; the messages are the media.”
A successful visual message on a large flat screen TV isn’t interpreted well by a consumer who time and space shifted her viewing of Grey’s Anatomy to an iPhone. Cognition-based ad copy that gives all the pertinent facts isn’t useful for some popular social media sites. A recent Harvard study reported the average number of words per “tweet” on Twitter is 14.98, with sentences containing an average of 10.69 words, versus 22.09 words in general usage. If short and abbreviated is better, advertising messages must conform – and also do more with less.
Once a message is birthed and disseminated in different forms through multiple channels, we need to “teach the ability to learn” advertising sales within converged media ventures. WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell reported in Ad Age that brands are reducing earnings expectations and in turn are drastically cutting marketing services budgets. With the advertising industry contracting, fewer graduates will gain positions in traditional media sales roles.
Rather than teaching CPM’s and first objections, we might consider training students in the art of the deal, an entrepreneurial quality that goes well beyond rate cards and creates advertising opportunities within a convergence model. A well integrated advertising initiative will not only attract clients, but will also generate higher revenues for the agency and income for the individual.
Consider the cost of doing business: Advertising that is dedicated to print carries a higher overhead than the same adapted message delivered on a social network site. And a viral video created for YouTube will most likely be more economical to produce than the related television commercial campaign. A savvy ad sales professional will blend, tailor and then price the products he or she is marketing. The convergence model is sold as one fluid unit, rather than the pieces and parts menu provided by media sales reps of the past.
Agencies are investing less in training new hires. Expectations for return on investment can be harsh and immediate. It’s appropriate for advertising educators to reconfigure our teaching and embrace convergence.
Tom Mueller is an assistant professor at Appalachian State University, Mueller’s expertise is in experiential marketing, event marketing, special events and promotions, new trends in media, media sales, and international advertising.