Matthew Mee – A Strategists Blog
The last time I was writing this we had just finished what felt like the mother of all pitches and now, sadly, we have found that it has stayed with the incumbent. I can't really say much about it without wanting to throw my desk/myself out of the window, so I had better move on.
On a brighter note, we just had a morning mini-conference at MediaCom on the topic of 'The Age of Dialogue' (the principle that now the point of communications is to facilitate conversations around brands). The best thing about it was that the people who spoke came at it from different
angles. For instance esteemed editor/journalist presenter Andrew Neil talked fascinatingly (without PowerPoint too) about how digital is impacting the world of politics and politicians and how this will play a role in determining the result of the next election.
Another speaker, Seth Haberman (an expert in personalised TV communication with a brain the size of a planet) digressed from his topic to discuss how interactivity can sometimes diminish the emotional power of a narrative (in a nutshell, it's more emotionally engaging to allow yourself to be told the story of 'Gone with the Wind' than it would be to interactively choose your own ending...). Which is true, when you think about it.
It was all thought-provoking. It left us to figure out for ourselves how the content may relate to our day jobs, which is far more likely to make us think interesting thoughts about work than the usual conference bore-athon where the agenda headings all invite a yes/no/it depends answer, but
somehow go on for hours ('Do young people still watch TV?' - yes - let's move on) .
Having said that, I wish my dear colleague Nick Lawson, all the best when he has a chat at Media 360 in a few weeks time on the topic of 'understanding the relative strengths and weaknesses of more established channels versus digital media in today's 24/7 world'. Not an easy one for a post-lunch session (where the buffet can prove to be the most challenging part of the
agenda)...unless anyone knows any good jokes about digital convergence, that is.
