Have a look at Tess Alps' "Plouffe of effectiveness” on Brand Republic. Maybe it’s the heat, she begins, “but some recent commentary has got a bit carried away when interpreting what certain wins at Cannes portend for TV. The successes of the fantastic Obama campaign and Tribal DDB’s brilliant ‘Carousel’ - an online film for Philips TVs – have got some a little over-excited. There is a small but noisy contingent desperate to prolong a TV versus internet polemic; so when what is effectively an online TV ad wins at Cannes they absurdly pronounce the death of TV advertising, much as they announced that online advertising can’t be working when Google started using TV to promote Chrome.”

In the UK, Alps, the CEO of Thinkbox, is in the business of marketing the TV industry regardless of the screen it inhabits, be it large or tiny, internet or cable and she frames the TV vs Internet discussion dead on, dispensing with polemics and agreeing with what Barack Obama campaign strategist David Plouffe said in Cannes: In terms of media, this is not a case of “either or.” There‘s a need for both in any successful campaign. Just as there is a need for authenticity and innovation on the part of any brand if it’s to succeed.

Personally, I am looking forward to the day when everything is all in one box and we can dispense with this discussion for good. When, who knows, maybe even film and cyber blend into one awards category.


Pat Sloan, Senior Vice President, Corporate Director of Public Affairs
Posted on July 2, 2009 8:14 PM | Permalink