In a world that is changing rapidly and where consumers are becoming more and more dispersed in their attention to advertising messages or less willing to receive them, as a media unit we are faced with the constant challenge of how to capture this audience within this context. To this we add other factors such as budget optimization, creativity -which must not only be present in the message but also in the media to carry this message- and of course, to meet the client's sales objective.
In my beginnings in the advertising industry, some years ago, I remember that we sought to reach different targets through the media we considered the best at that time. The ideal was when the client had the budget for a mix that included different media and if we had a television commercial it was the best scenario because we achieved a faster reach.
Today, we have learned that we do not require high investments to achieve eye-catching things, that the media can and should be open so that together with us, as commercial partners, we can propose different advertising strategies to advertisers and not focus on a TV spot that appears in a commercial break of a specific program. This learning includes that the union of digital with ATL is and will continue to be successful, and that we cannot think only in one or the other, but to manage a synergy between both.
At the beginning of this digital era, as usual, we were a bit scared because we had been working for years with very similar campaign placements. We bought TV, radio, press and some outdoor media, ahh! not to mention if you could have all of these included in the mix. That was phenomenal. Thinking about integrations with screens, different commercial figures, live mentions was very uncommon and not to mention digital amplifications, that was like thinking "and how do you eat that?"
The challenges are not only in how to innovate with media buys, but also in keeping up to date, wanting to learn from a very different world (digital), and also being able to show clients why the union of both worlds can be very successful.
Yes, we have always had to optimize budgets, but today we have to do even more, the client wants results, he wants leads that work, he wants his brand to be in the consumer's top of mind and of course he wants to sell.
We have to be more and more proactive as planners or paid media, we have to be training ourselves, we have to investigate, understand the data that different providers offer us and of course, we have to see placement opportunities, some more or less crazy they will say, but what is certain is that even though we know that optimization is equal to challenge, we must also think about a second phrase and that is that optimization is also equal to innovation.