Demanding Times

It has been nearly twenty-five years since Bruce Springsteen growled: “There was fifty-seven channels and notin' on…”

And for twenty-five years we have had an ever-increasing bundle of choice in entertainment.

We had multiple TV channels but only one box. Cellphones were for making phone calls. The Internet was finding its way into homes, but few realised the impact it would have.

M-Net was 1986, DSTV created in 1995, and YouTube began 2005.

The television splintered into multiple devices, and most of us have a screen available to us wherever we are.

Choice continued to evolve. This year, it grew up.

With the introduction of On-Demand Entertainment services in South Africa, we joined the world in entering the On-Demand Era.

This is more than choice - this introduces “expectation”.

Audiences are now getting used to having their entertainment when, how and on what they want.

So what is demanded of us? The people previously protected by ad breaks and pre-roll.

Given that many international On-Demand services offer more commercial-free subscriptions, we may not be secure forever.

Now, audiences accessing content will no longer tolerate an interruption: they’ll demand value.

Advertisers are not alone. We all want people’s attention: Look at my series. Look at my movie. Look at my lunch.

So, as part of a community that helps agencies be heard above the noise, are our skills as visual storytellers enough to move into the highly competitive On-Demand media phase? Are we collectively able to entice viewers to watch an entire commercial completely unrelated in substance to the video they expected on YouTube?

More than ever, our skills are directly related to getting noticed. But gone are the days of the pretty package and no substance.

The demand on our ability to translate concepts into visually engaging pieces of true quality is more vital than ever.

But the value offered by directors cannot continue to live on the periphery of the process.

Agencies are now engaging the consumer on an integrated story level. The future is an extended conversation between the brands and their audiences.

The model that has created various businesses to service the various pieces of brand communication is being tested.

But where does that leave the relationship between the classic commercial production studio and ad agencies?

I don’t think anyone has a definitive answer but I do know we are better together.

As the divisions fall away inside agencies between digital and traditional, so too will the gap between the directors and the projects.

So for us to stand a chance at being noticed the whole will only be as strong as the sum of its parts, and the commercial’s director will become integrated too.

I can see a future where the production component is part of the process - attached to the project like a feature film director, ushering the creation of a film from development through to delivery.