I just celebrated my 2nd year anniversary here @ RTCRM. It’s not just a lifespan marker that signals to me that I’ve met and worked with all the teams across the agency but more so a threshold recognizing the establishment of a discipline.

We aren’t talking about media purely from a planning, buying and implementation standpoint. The core part of the practice is really focused on being a consultancy…working across all the teams to help provide insight, perspective and strategic support. Being at the heart of marketing planning and program development is so helpful in ensuring that the teams think as holistically as possible about the target and potential communication touchpoints. Online and offline.

The other parts of “the practice” lie in the areas of “parternships” and “information.” Partnerships are our relationships with media agencies. One of our key objectives for our teams to have strong working relationship with them. The on-going connection of creative and media is so important. It’s an opportunity for all of us to take advantage of our collective thinking and experiences.

As for “information,” it goes without saying that there are so many ways in which research, secondary and proprietary, can infuse great strategy. Media is a central point to many sources of secondary research…through our network and our media agency partners.

So what now as I, and the practice at large, begin the 3rd year? Evolution and innovation. Evolution because the discipline needs to continue to listen to the needs of our clients, agency teams and partners. We need to continue to think about how to continue to deepen our channel and communications savvy. Innovation because we need to keep challenging ourselves to think of new ways to create, nurture and loyalize our relationships. New tools and tactics are coming about…even old ones that are enhanced technologically that allow direct marketers to utlize.

You Tube “views” may be small compared to other media, but those views are from active, engaged consumers seeking out content. Compare that mindset to the average television consumer, TiVo remote in hand, distractions abounding. Also, keep in mind the sheer breadth of content on YouTube. One video with a million views may not seem impressive, but what about a thousand videos that a million people have chosen to watch? The most popular video on YouTube has 76 million views (and counting); the hundredth most popular has 13 million (and counting). Those figures are up dramatically from 40 million and 3 million, respectively, a year ago. Imagine those numbers when YouTube’s been around for a decade or two. Compare this to television. Ten years ago, Bruce Springsteen sang “57 channels and nothing on…” A decade later we’ve got more channels… do we have anything more to watch? Do you know anyone who channel surfs any more? While Viacom may have slapped the hand of YouTube, other companies are embracing it. Search for any Letterman appearance you may have missed and you’ll find it uploaded by CBS itself. Like any medium, the Internet and YouTube in particular, has more than its share of tomfoolery, but watch some of the videos mentioned in this Washington Post article and see if you don’t come away with new respect for the emotional impact potential of this nascent art form (did he just say art form?).

Everyone is talking about about social media and word-of-mouth marketing these days and acting like it’s a new phenomenon. When, in reality, it’s the same thing that’s been happening for centuries (if not longer) just now we use fancy technology to do it. Word-of-mouth referrals are the holy grail of marketing. Just how do you convince someone to tell someone else about your product? How do you convince someone to share their opinion on their blog, on your website or in a cafe? Really, it’s quite simple — do something that is actually worth talking about.

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