As I grappled on what exactly to write for my next piece, I was seated at the School Library sifting through the book ‘Media is the Massage’, by Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian professor and philosopher who is best known for coining the phrase, “the medium is the message.” McLuhan believed that the medium used to deliver the message has a significant effect on how the content is received and digested. The medium, not content carried with it has the power to influence society.
Bullseye! I had stumbled on what I was looking for. Even though his idea came to light over 50 years ago when new media only referred to Television movies and comics, it can still be applied in marketing, advertising, social media use and other facets of media consumption in the world today.
You see, Marshall put it out that reading a newspaper article and watching a TV news report about the same topic are fundamentally different, and that the messages they convey are very different as well. Sounds interesting right? Another example today would be the use of Twitter, (medium) which restricts users to only 280 characters (content). As a user, all the content you have has to be structured to fit the medium’s structure.
As communication experts, we are always working towards pushing the very best content for our clients so that they can get substantial impact. More than McLuhan today, we have so many mediums at our disposal. From the traditional mass media, newspapers, radio, TV and magazines. Digital media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others have also disrupted brand and customer relations. However, the more things change, the more they remain the same and as McLuhan insinuated, the one who masters the power of the medium is at the end of the day, the true winner.
In McLuhan’s own words, “advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century”. With so many channels in the 21st Century, we can say that advertising is still and will for a long time continue being the greatest art.
Art is for artists and as brand experts, this presents us with a good opportunity to understand what brands we sell, the mediums available and how effectively to best push products. It has never been a one size fits all, hence understanding the brand well enough helps dictate the best medium to use and how best to tailor the content. Ultimately, the medium used will also dictate how your communications and brand personality are perceived.
How customers perceive the brand is heavily affected by the medium used. For example, brands that are able to effectively engage users on social networks will always have an upper hand. This is because these same platforms are what users use to keep abreast with friends and relatives. On the same tangent, if your brand is visible the clients are able to connect with you in a social way and as a result heavily affecting their purchasing patterns.
This just adds onto just how important the medium is and a realization that we have been wrong all along to concentrate solely on the content aspect. Simply put, the content has never been and will never be king. Content requires a great distribution strategy and the best distribution strategy is using the right distribution medium.
You can create the best content ever seen or heard but upon the slightest mismanagement through the medium, the impact may be very minimal or non-existent.
Therefore, the experience you want to pass down to your audience will be more influenced by medium than just the content itself. To reach here and be able to deliver in an ever-demanding market, we need to be master artists who creatively study the available mediums, selectively and carefully crafting impactful messages. Otherwise, the many sensational messages will be an exercise in futility, as good content gets lost in the clutter.
A point of caution, however, the concentration on the medium does not in any way give the excuse for producing deficient content. Good content coupled with a good distribution strategy and idyllic medium will almost entirely deliver the intended results.
