In the '70s, the food industry preached the message that snacking was good. Now the snack food industry is bigger than the food industry. Well, the same thing will happen with content.
That's the view of Cannes veteran Rene Rechtman, CEO Be On, and senior vice president at AOL. Rechtman has a history of predicting the next big thing over the last eight years at Cannes. He told a session on Sunday that 2013 was all about emotive content. Boardrooms need to forget about scale, Facebook likes and the rest and get the best creative money can buy.
“I go into boardrooms and they say 'hey Rene, how do we create scale like we used to on TV, get 45 million views?' Well, I think we need to take a step back and look at creative.
“We are overloaded with content. We have never been so connected so how do we ensure people find our content when the probability of them doing so is zero?”
He said the shift to the content snacking “phenomenon” was “very important to understand going forward” because the 25-year-old contract between traditional media, advertisers and the viewer “is breaking”.
“All the data shows people are interested in higher value when it comes to creative.... so the better the story telling, the emotional connection, the better the results. Especially with the [younger] generation, and we are just adapting.
“Even for old farts like me, rational ads do not talk to us. So if you want to speak to the younger generation, forget about it.”
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.
Have something to say? Send us your comments using the form below or contact the writer at brendancoyne@yaffa.com.au
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.