Open Media
Open Media proposes that: Any medium can be used by all disciplines, in almost any mix. That means you can advertise in the mail, the Internet and product packaging as well as on radio and TV. You can even use salespeople to advertise. One of the most surprising discoveries was the recognition that true creatives have a tendency to mix elements of different disciplines in a particular communication. They borrow from the traditions of advertising, direct, PR, product design and so on in creating a press ad, a mail pack, a web page, or a TV spot.
MNP widens the conventional understanding of media to include anything that conveys a message to a recipient. Any brand-stakeholder interface implies a medium. That means that all contact or touch points should be included in the mix and taken into account for effectiveness and preference.
Notice, nothing of what we really know is lost. Anyone who has used mail or TV or advertising or sales promotion successfully can continue to do so. But suddenly new doors are open, and these promise significant opportunities for competitive advantage.
Examples
- Boots found, when launching a new product, that they could achieve 27% more awareness by direct mail than by TV at 64% of the cost.
- Mother recommended to Costa Coffee that they spend their money on redesigning the store rather than TV ads
- Michaelides and Bednash recommended B.H.S. to spend money on in-store shopping assistants to keep customers buying rather than TV to attract them there.
- American Express make a mail media statement work harder
- Philips light bulbs: transforming media and method
- RAF turned an Airfix model plane into an advertising device (generating over 900 new recruitment candidates from a mailing of just 10,000 engineers)
- Ramada Inns - continuously improving live ads, the employees
- Snapple used mangoes as the vehicle to carry its message about new product availability. Californian growers put mini-posters on mangoes announcing: "Now available in Snapple", a brilliant brand-true media concept.
- The iMac demonstrated the talking power of products
- WRC products offer valuable space for effective communications to other brands