Darren Herman has an excellent post here entitled “Goodby Media Sales Execs.”
Gulp. Darren’s a good client of mine and his post follows a post from my boss a while back entitled “Ad Sales People: An Endangered Species?” Needless to say I read both posts carefully. The power of a good headline. What’s going on here?
These posts and the work I’m doing with the rest of the Federated Media sales team has lead to what I find to be an “a ha” moment:
Advertising used to be about the buying and selling of space (or time.) It is now about building branded experiences. In many cases, the ads are a small part of the equation.
I know, it was always about bringing editorial and audiences to life and connecting them to a brand. But the primary “product” was always space or time. It was THE solution rather A solution. Now we are helping brands connect with advertisers in richer, more varied ways. We are building sites, widgets, games, etc. This is a huge difference that the industry has not yet caught up with.
I interview a lot of online sales people. Some sell space. They move inventory. Others provide solutions and experiences. I hire the latter group.
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