Monster Media!

Media. Uncompromising, relentless, probing, inquisitive and unforgiving. Just a few of the accusative adjectives that flood the tides of today’s public perception. Yet while we all disapprovingly critique its methods; its dirty little secrets which haunt the misbehaving; it is true to say that the vehicle which powers our marketing and advertising is predicated on the drama, which media creates.

It is, you see, the news, which creates the media. By create I mean drives and shapes the media, at least the electronic and paper media. News stories are given absolute peak time priority. Take a look at the time slots they occupy – 5.30pm to 7.00pm is absolute peak viewing, so why fill it with news?

Because news is the foundation of every radio, television and newspaper anywhere in the world. They drive the ratings, they mould the stations/paper’s image and if you doubt my word spend just 10 minutes in any television station prior to the news broadcast… and don’t preclude social media from this common denominator.

Behind the cool facade of the anchor man lies a chaos; a shambolic 600 seconds of fear, urgency and pure panic because the news must be absolutely current. ‘Hold the presses’ is real. Newspaper editors are hanging on deadline words ready to change copy right up to the get go.

Today it is proven time and time again, and while some agencies have now finally got it, somehow a number of less studious organisations still don’t understand the damage they do to themselves and the client. It is the news which creates the viewers who stay tuned in to watch your ads, who listen to the station to hear your voice and to read your words of truth.

The content of a newspaper is all about news… let’s face it, we don’t read papers for the ads do we?

I make the point because to many of us see our media as parasites who feed of their young. Dirty crusaders who seek out the wrong doers and make them accountable. Without them we do not have a vehicle to sell our products, to peddle our wares, to have our say.

I have always been a three dimensional thinker and when I hear the scuttlebutt of critique which accompanies the release of a story, ill gotten and sensationalised, I am confronted by a large neon light which says ‘Caution’. The media is so easy to criticise but remember that despite it’s dirty tricks, in spite of it’s sly underhanded leak takers, we would not have a channel to present our ideas, our opinions, our views and importantly the ability to communicate the great products that drive our lives.

It may be a skewed view but like nature’s own chaos theory, our news media drives another important communication vehicle, which not only pays its wages but is a thundering engine delivering the good messages along with the bad.

Next time you want to buy media, look for the station or the print media, which wins the news ratings, sensational or not, and you’ll find your best chance of success, because it’s likely to be the most popular.