Goodbye added value; hello digital sales! Yesterday was the day that I put together the agency's first all-digital buy for a new client with a significant digital campaign. After sifting through piles of data, CPMs, impressions, unique visitors, click-through rates, rich media, and html, I led my team into the digital fire and took the plunge (and I have a feeling that we're there to stay).
THE DIGITAL DILEMA
The shift to digital is not risk-adverse for the media buying agency, and for the client. It's a new field and the Internet is still the Wild West, so to speak. What we don't have as an industry is a unit of measurement--like a GRP--to help quantify a buy. So, there's a great deal of "unknown" when media planning.
Right now, we're combining CPM and gut instinct to develop best practices for clients and industry (although Travel seems to have established some best practices). Hopefully, in a year or two, a service like Arbitron or Nielson (or even Google) will create the technology to create the "digital GRP" to help target digital media buying. Until then, we're taming the West--which brings me to the following point: I think we've reached the tipping point for station digital assets, but I think we reached that tipping point with our pants down with no meaningful way to quantify our successes. When used properly, digital can create a significant ROI for clients, especially if the campaign targets 18-34 (and especially 25-34).
Digital is no longer throw-away added value for traditional buys. Ladies and gentlemen: the future is now.
Bob Knight is EVP, Advertising/Digital Media at Harrison Edwards, Inc. in New York and can be reached at bknight@harrison-edwardspr.
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