[MUSIC] To start MOOC four I want to welcome back Professor Judy Friends. Judy spoke about media and chaos in MOOC one. Now that we are in MOOC four our we still in chaos? >> Randy, unfortunately, yes, we are. And it's not the good side of chaos, either. Even though the media ecosystem makes sense, and throughout the course of this MOOC, social makes a lot more sense, marketing strategies are still in chaos. And the reason for this is, even though marketers understand that the consumer belongs at the center of their effort, they still need to take a platform first approach when they're thinking about resource allocation. Because ultimately every marketer needs to figure out where do I spend my time and where to I spend my money. >> So basically, it's a marketing finance type issue? >> Yes, I'm gonna blame this issue on the balance sheet. Because it forces marketers to ask three resource allocation questions. Number one, when should I pay to place messaging on a media company's platform? Number two, when should I invest resources to produce my own content, to engage directly with audiences? Or three. When do I acknowledge that others have to do the talking for me, and I'm going to attempt to earn organic conversations among engaged communities? So these three questions form the basis of what we call paid, owned, and earned media. And the interesting thing is, paid, owned, and earned media have nothing to do with media as I've described it in MOOC one in media from Chaos to Clarity. These are clearly financial terms, and they've led marketers to wrestle with a very simple, yet highly flawed paid owned earned media riddle that goes something like this. Marketers should try to pay as little as they can, own as much of the brand experience as possible, and earn favorable brand mentions in a socially connected media world. Now this sounds simple, but this riddle, frankly, is unsolvable because we stop and think about it, how little is pay as little as you can? What do you do if you build owned media and no one shows up? And how can you predict earned conversations? So I think it's important for us to take a look at each of these in a little bit more detail. >> Yeah. Help us solve the riddle. >> Well, it's not solvable. First and foremost, it's very difficult in paid media to figure out how little does pay a little when media is so expensive. And you might question why is media so expensive today, we have more media than ever before. But the interesting thing, we actually have a supply and demand paradox, because while we have more media in the absolute, we actually have less mass media because more audiences are slipping into the long tail of media. But marketers still need mass media to scale and audience. So when you look at supply and demand, the demand for mass media still exists, but the supply of it is actually declining, which is causing pricing to go up. >> So is what you're saying that is, as media fragments, and markets begin to move into very specialized media, the companies that need to go across those end up spending more because sales have gone down with more media that's gone up? >> Exactly, and part of the problem you could argue, well wait a minute, those audiences are still in the eco system. Can't we just buy them a la carte? But as you well know, buying A la carte is no bargain. For any of us who have bought an entire album's worth of download on iTunes, we know when we look at the bill that it was an expensive way to go about doing it. >> Right. >> So even thought when you buy A la carte, individual prices may be lower. It adds up quickly. Now the interesting thing, so marketers may be saying there's so much inflation in paid media why don't I just build my own media. But I'd like to take a line from one of my favorite movies, Field of Dreams, and twist it a little bit. In that movie the line is if you build it, they will come. But when it comes to own media I'd like to say if you build it, they may not come. There is so much owned media content in the ecosystem today that marketers are actually putting out a new type of clutter in the marketplace. We've long talked about advertising clutter. But we now have content clutter and it's forcing marketers to actually spend money to promote this ability of their own media platforms, because there's so much of it out there that unless audiences know where to go they won't ever really find it. >> So what you're really saying is that where, in the past, I might be able to put content out there, and people would come to my site, now, because of all the clutter, I spend the money to put the content out there. Then I'm gonna have to spend more money to get them aware of the content that I have? >> Exactly, and when you stop and think about it, the reason why this is happening is really only what I call super fans or they actively engaged in your category, will find you on their own. In fact, for each and every one of us, think about how many company websites or Instagram platforms or YouTube channels we visit on a regular basis. Chances are we need to be engaged for a reason, we're not going to go there on our own. >> When you talk about super fans, are they the same as influencers? The people who speak to a community, and are they kind of followed then? >> Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Which leads me to the third part of this riddle, which is earned media. A lot of marketers and especially those who haven't taken this MOOC yet do what I call viral media roulette because they put content out on a social platform and cross their fingers that it will go viral. The key is to activate networks and make sure that the content is compelling enough that an influencer in a network community will spread it. Now, that influencer may not necessarily be hanging out on a marketer's own media platform. As you shared throughout this MOOC, our high value customer prospects and influencers can be throughout the social pyramid, and we can't necessarily rely and them exclusively showing up on our own media platforms and join the work force there.
