This week, I had the opportunity to host another Media Mixology event in NYC, bringing together the SRDS community of media buyers and sellers. We networked, enjoyed some hospitality and heard a few insights from industry professionals, Mary Poscik of G2, Kevin Moeller of Media Behavior Institute and Ki Mae Heussner of GigaOm.

This event was actually a make-good because we had to postpone it from November in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. But despite the rescheduling, more than 100 professionals showed.

The discussion centered on the challenges agencies face when integrating emerging media into our clients’ plans, and how agency professionals can be better partners for their clients.

In prepping for the discussion, I was struck by the number of big headlines that have occurred in our industry in the last three months since we postponed. It made me appreciate even more the challenge agencies and marketers face as they try to stay ahead of the consumer’s ever-changing habits.

Across the media research, advertising and technology landscape there have been a number of big headlines:

• In Media Research: Consolidation of audience media measurement firms continues, as Nielsen announced its plans to buy Arbitron and the industry weighs the benefits of single source providers.
• In Technology: The mobile wars continued to escalate with Apple introducing a new iPhone and a mini tablet, Microsoft releasing Surface Pro, Samsung gaining traction with Galaxy, and now RIM is seriously pursuing a comeback with its latest (and strongly reviewed) Blackberry.
• In Digital Media: Facebook has introduced a whole new media: social search. Now there is speculation that they will acquire Atlas ad server technology from Microsoft to help super-size their display ad business.
• And in TV: This time of year, the entire ad industry is watching new campaigns break on the big screen for major events like Golden Globes, the Super Bowl, the Grammys and the Oscars. But how many of us have already seen these ads on the smaller screen? That’s why we also have to watch social media, especially the Twitterverse for analysis and ROI insights. And so not surprisingly, Twitter announces the acquisition of Social TV researcher Blue Fin Labs.

And that’s just the big stuff.

Through all of this, marketers don’t just expect their agency partners to stay on top of news coverage and understand the changing players as well as their new line-up of offerings. No, what marketers really need is help in understanding how their audiences are adopting and using these new technologies and how their behavior is being measured. They are anxiously relying on us to advise them how to participate in this new environment, while still doing our day jobs.

It’s a major opportunity and a reason why we love being part of our dynamic media industry. It’s how each of us keeps learning – and pushing our clients to try new things. And it’s why we all want to come together at these events, share ideas on what’s working, or not, and blow off a little steam.

Thanks to our speakers, Mary, Kevin and Ki Mae. Thanks to our sponsors for making the event possible. Thanks for spending some time talking with me and the SRDS team about your new challenges. Thanks for giving me a reason to stop and reflect on what’s happening so quickly. It’s why we love media.

Here at Kantar Media SRDS, we are wrapping up and putting a bow on another strong and successful year for our business.

This is the 94^th year that SRDS has served the media industry and I am very proud of how much our team has accomplished in 2012. Our data and research offerings continue to evolve to meet the digital and multimedia needs of the buyers and sellers of advertising.

A few weeks ago, I spoke at our company's holiday lunch and focused on why our business has managed to stay strong in an industry that is in continuous disruption from the forces of digital media innovation and consumer adoption redefining the way marketers must deliver messages to their target audience.

In very simple terms, I described the SRDS approach to managing through these changes by way of a four-step process which I coined 4-D:

1. Disruption: Understand what is happening and where things are headed. Think about the present and its impact on the future.
2. Dealing: Put organizational plans in place at strategic and tactical levels which will allow the business to manage through the disruption over the short term and enable it to grow strongly over the long term.
3. Doing: Commit to working the plan (executing), on all levels, all the time.
4. Delivering: Measure the results. Stay accountable and make changes to continuously improve.

For me personally, as a full-time resident of a New York coastal community that was impacted by Hurricane Sandy, I couldn't help but draw a 4-D parallel to what my family and neighbors are experiencing as we manage through the impact of a different but very real disruptive force.

1. Disruption: In my community, when the ocean waters flooded our streets and destroyed many of our homes, schools and places of worship, it was relatively simple, as we inspected the resulting carnage, to understand where things were headed if we didn’t fix our town.
2. Dealing: Through the tears, it was comforting for us to see that our local, state and federal authorities had a plan to help us recover.
3. Doing: Neighbors and volunteers from around the country "worked the plan." They cleared homes, removed debris and continue to make progress every day. Seven weeks later, the results are truly amazing.
4. Delivering: In two weeks, power, sewage and potable water were restored. Schools reopened in less than three weeks. While we're not entirely back in action yet, we are seeing very real and measurable results.

It’s that reflective time of year, and 2012 has truly provided me with plenty of moments that, disruptive or not, leave me deeply grateful for and proud of the accomplishments of many both at home and at work. Here’s to a wonderful new year.

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks on the road spending time with many agency and publisher clients, discussing ways we can help make SRDS a better business partner in the media community.

Last week I attended the ABM (American Business Media) conference in San Francisco, where the three-day agenda was centered on a “Customer Driven Future.”

It was great to hear Jack Griffin (ex-Time Inc. and Meredith CEO) articulate what he believes to be the four “building blocks” that all media companies must build to ensure a successful “customer-focused” future:

1. Data & Audience
2. Content & Brand
3. Convening Power & Community
4. Social & Mobile

It was even better to see real examples of how some b2b “publishers” now serve their communities in far greater ways than providing breaking news and feature editorial.

In many industry markets the leading event producers, research providers, database experts, continuing education, and certification specialists are also the guys who employ journalists that cover the industry beat.

It’s a new world and the most successful media brands have shown the ability to understand the needs of the audience they serve—and then help by building robust paid and sponsored capabilities around them.

It came at a great time for me because a few days before the conference, I joined ten advertising agency clients who make up our SRDS Agency Advisory Board in NYC for a full day of discussions on how we might serve our audience better.

We started by asking our board to share their “pain” and to learn “what’s keeping them up at night.” While there were lots of thoughtful comments and debate on numerous topics, there was near unanimity in one area: the difficulty in keeping their teams properly trained on the basics and best practices of media planning and buying.

I guess this sentiment shouldn’t be too surprising. Digital is changing media every day and clients are looking for agencies to be multi-media planning experts.

Learning the ropes on how to properly plan and buy just one type of media must take time (and who really has time anymore). When you layer in the number of media channels a planner is expected to know and  the nuances of the media research providers, metrics, and brands that make-up each market, well: PAIN.

By trying to organize the media marketplace and marrying it with standardized buying metrics, I’m glad to know that SRDS currently helps soothe some of my customers' pain today. But as we begin to assemble and stack our building blocks, I’m certain there is so much more we can do.

What do you think? Is better training for media buyers and planners an issue our industry needs to address?

I’ve just returned from the 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies) annual conference that was held this year in Los Angeles. For the past four years this conference has been titled “Transformation,” and the content has been built around the recurring theme that traditional media communication is transforming into digital.  It’s a path many of us continue to travel down and there is truly no shortage of relevant content for our industry professionals to learn and share. 

But a new transformation theme emerged for me this week.  It’s not just the traditional guys that are going digital…..the digital guys are going traditional. 

A few examples from this conference.

Google

On Tuesday morning most of the breakfast chatter surrounded the WSJ report  showing that in 2011 Google quadrupled their media spend (mostly  in TV, Magazines and Newspapers) to $203 million. 

For their newer products like Google+, Chrome and YouTube, Google clearly gets that not every marketing objective can be solved via search. Their spend confirms a confidence in traditional media to help build brand awareness.

Microsoft

Jaron Lanier (Partner Architect, Microsoft Research) had a lively debate with WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell on the overall economic and societal impact of technology, big data and social media. 

Lanier cautioned the industry about our “silver-bullet lust” that we have for digital data sets. Digital media’s openness has a downside he noted because it  "allows scammers to jump in and ruin the data; you begin to question the links, the likes the reviews etc.” These are legitimate industry concerns that have been raised by others, but hearing a Microsoft  research exec refer to our digital waters as an “ocean of scammy-ness” certainly caught my attention. 

iheartradio.com

Clear Channel’s CEO, Bob Pittman (a former MTV and AOL exec), gave a compelling pitch to a room packed with agency execs on the power of Radio as a traditional media and now, with what they hope is a “Pandora-killing” iheartradio brand, a digital medium. 

He later brought on Ryan Seacrest and a great assembly of new musical talent to put clout behind his strong words. But to me, he didn’t need any wingmen. He had made his case with a single slide. It showed an enormous increase in iheartradio app downloads. The upswing occurred after all his stations began running their coordinated over-the-air ad campaign.

Facebook

As a Bronze-level sponsor of the event it was great to see some of Zuck's pre-IPO bucks being put to good use. But if Facebook did any social-media marketing at the event, they were quiet on the very active #transformla twitter stream, or I missed it. 

What I didn’t miss was their beautifully designed, 20-page print brochure, that touted successful advertising case studies launched on Facebook.  It was inserted in each attendee's bag and hand-delivered when we arrived. 

Yep, the 800 million-user social media giant went to the magazine-guys' favorite playbook:  the “thud-factor." They dropped a gorgeously expensive b2b bomb on a target audience of a few hundred decision makers. And I bet it worked. 

Apple

No, Apple wasn’t there, but creative advertising guru Lee Clow (TBWA Global Director of Media Arts) was. He shared the stage with Steve Hayden (Vice Chairman of Oglivy & Mather Worldwide) and the two reminisced about their career-long collaboration with Apple and Steve Jobs including some hilarious behind-the-scenes stories on the making of their legendary “1984” Macintosh Super Bowl ad.

Clow concluded by reminding everyone that the products marketed by Apple, arguably today’s most admired business, use mostly TV and Billboards to tell their story. The social media buzz they generate is largely earned media. His advice to agencies was to focus on telling great stories and not on manipulating the fragile digital and social media ecosystems where their customers reside. He left the stage to a standing ovation. 

So my overall 4As takeaway

Transformation really is a two-way street. It's not about traditional becoming digital or digital becoming traditional. We all need to become tradigital.

And the sooner our industry receives that message, the better we’ll find the right marketing balance that best serves our consumer.