Products too are mediums
Products mediate between people and companies, the way mediums do between their audiences and performers . So media agencies, who excel in orchestrating relationships via mediated interactions should go beyond campaign optimisation.
What follows is a thought experiment. A ‘Shitty First Draft’ of a flash of an idea. I share it in the hope to get your honest critique or contribution. Thanks for reading it anyway.
Mediums mediate between two parties. Standing in-between, they convey an intended message from one end to the other, and the reaction back to the sender. In the form of repeated interaction or a dialogue, a relationship emerges. Every interaction facilitated through the medium, shapes this relationship.
In this sense products and services too are mediums. Their producers’ or providers’ intent is to create value for their customers or clients. To make a positive change in their lives [message]. People find value or utility in these products or services so they purchase them [reply]. In case of mutual interest, the exchange repeats. The dialogue continues, a relationship emerges.
So companies’ output is not an end itself, but a mean to an end. They don’t produce for the sake of the production. Their product is a medium.
If this is the case, then media agencies have the knowledge, and the resources to deal with more than ‘just’ campaign optimisation. The way they orchestrate the channel mix, and the TRPs in the light of the expected outcome, within the given budget could be applied to other fields of the business as well. How many times, how often and in what ways should a brand meet its audience via their product [being a medium] to maximise their relationship. I think media agencies are not in the business of advertising logistics, but in the business of brand-people conversations regardless of the medium.
What do you think?
