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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Forbes Interview with Jeff Einstein
March 14th, 2011

The following is a Forbes interview with Jeff Einstein of
the Brothers Einstein, conducted by Pete Krainik, CEO of
the CMO Club.

Pete: I caught up again recently with digital pioneer and
media contrarian Jeff Einstein of the Brothers Einstein,
and we discussed what he describes as the existential
crisis in the commercial media channels today...

Pete: What's the problem, Jeff?

Jeff: The real problem in the media ecology right now is
the absolute dearth of effective, scalable reach for big
brand advertisers. All branding is a function of reach,
first and foremost, and brands simply can't grow unless
and until they can find and secure cost-efficient ways to
scale effective reach. In fact, scalable brand reach is
the only nondiscretionary line item in any big brand media
spend, and that's why ? after all this time ? digital
branding revenues are still just a small fraction of their
network TV counterparts, despite the rapid growth of the
digital channels and the equally rapid erosion of effect-
ive network TV reach in recent years. Brand advertising
nowadays is suddenly like the proverbial tree in the forest
that falls when no one is around to hear it. Despite the
increase in sheer tonnage, the media channels are shedding
effective, scalable brand reach.

Pete: How can there be no effective, scalable reach when
there's so much inventory, especially online?

Jeff: For the same reason that knowledge and wisdom are
subtractive, not additive. Because the entire advertising
industry ? especially online ? caters almost exclusively
to the supply-side creation and distribution of the one
thing no one in an on-demand media universe demands and
the one thing everyone in an on-demand media universe is
equipped to avoid: the ads themselves. It's utterly non-
sensical and completely delusional to think for a moment
that we can generate effective, scalable brand reach with
the one thing no one wants and everyone is equipped to
avoid ? regardless of the medium.

Pete: But what can advertisers do to compensate for the
loss of effective, scalable reach on TV if no one wants
the ads online either?

Jeff: We need to begin by asking the right question, one
that's truly mindful of the fact that all commercial media
are now and always have been on-demand. And the right
question in an on-demand media universe isn't, "How do we
target the right audience?" The right question is "How do
we get the right audience to target us?"

Pete: Implicit in that question is an assertion that the
right audience somehow qualifies itself.

Jeff: Exactly, Pete. Self qualification is now and always
has been the defining characteristic of all on-demand
media. In fact, we declare our demographic profiles every
time we decide which programs to watch on TV, what to
listen to on radio, which magazines to read, or which
websites or blogs to visit online. In an on-demand media
universe the right audience always qualifies and declares
itself simply by showing up. But in advertising, getting
the right audience to show up is the easy part.

Pete: What's the hard part?

Jeff: The hard part is delivering the brand message once
they get there because no one ever goes anywhere for the
ads, and the ads can no longer hope to penetrate the
massive inertia generated by their own incessant clutter,
especially online. The patent inability to bust through
the clutter of our own commercial media environments adds
insult to injury for advertisers because it forces them
to pay the equivalent of a progressive environmental tax,
what I call the Inertia Tax, the growing percentage of
each media dollar dedicated to overcoming the inertia
generated by the commercial media environments themselves.
The Inertia Tax online is especially onerous and masks the
much simpler truism that the ads aren't there to support
the content in the first place. Quite the contrary: the
content is there to support the ads.

Pete: Some would argue that content is king.

Jeff: Content may be king, Pete, but content is always
incidental to the real function of all commercial media:
deliver the ads. Even kings need their financial barons.
This fundamental truism of commercial media gets lost in
the clutter each and every time we sit down to calculate
our Inertia Tax.

Pete: So what can advertisers do?

Jeff: Rather than pay to immerse the ad in the content,
advertisers need to remove the ads from the intermediary
clutter entirely and immerse the content in the ad instead
on a branded destination page. Advertisers need to augment
or replace the collapsing advertising-as-intermediary
model with a more robust and effective advertising-as-
destination model.

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Pete: Can you give me an example?

Jeff: Sure. The advertising-as-destination model dominated
the golden years of radio and TV, when advertisers owned
the programs they sponsored, and thus owned the entire
branding experience, soup to nuts. The programs were
indistinguishable from the ads because everyone knew full
well that the programs were only there to deliver the ads.
The programs and the brands who owned them shared the same
marquees and the same destinations.

Pete: That was a long time ago, and most advertisers don't
own their own content anymore.

Jeff: That's true. Advertisers have devolved over the years
from content owners into media renters. But while many
advertisers may not own their own content anymore, they
can certainly license what they need and own the virtual
theater and stage. They can own the online destination.
The secret to delivering an impactful brand impression is
purely subtractive, and the job of the brand marketer is
to subtract all competing distractions, to distill the
branding environment until only the essence of the pure
content and brand message remain. It was true eighty
years ago for the radio pioneers, true in the 1950s for
the TV pioneers, and even truer today when the Inertia
Tax consumes so much more of each and every media dollar
invested.

Pete: Is anyone building those destination environments
online today?

Jeff: There's an online syndication shop in New York City
called Studio One Networks. They've been quietly and
successfully building single-sponsor destinations for big
corporate clients online since 1998. Ironically, one of
their biggest clients is P&G, the sponsor for some of
the earliest radio and television soap operas. Anyone
interested in building quality environments for their
brands should pick up the phone and talk to Andrew Susman.

Pete: I can understand how the advertising-as-destination
model might deliver a much more effective branding
environment, but how does it deliver scalable reach?

Jeff: It doesn't. Just shifting from the advertising-as-
intermediary model to the advertising-as-destination model
can't deliver scalable reach. In order to generate scalable
reach, you need to replace the intermediary ads that no
one wants with something that everyone wants. The current
advertising-as-intermediary model is like fishing with bait
that's been clinically proven to repel fish. Simply stated,
advertisers need better bait.

Pete: Such as?

Jeff: Short-format video clips. Just as we can state
unequivocally that no one wants more ads, we can also
state unequivocally that everyone wants more short-format
video ? the only reason any of us pay through the nose
for high-speed Internet access to begin with. The fact
that the folks who don't want more ads are the same exact
folks who want more short-format video merely confirms
the need and insatiable appetite for better bait. If you
want to attract specific audience demos in real scale,
just replace the ads with demographically appropriate
video snack thumbnails. Once you do, self-qualified
audiences will flock to your exclusively branded destin-
ation pages in huge numbers. It's the only way for big
brand advertisers to compensate online for the erosion
of big brand reach on television, and the only way to
vastly reduce or eliminate the Inertia Tax that drives
up costs and drives down performance for everyone.
Remember the sage lyrics of Fishin' Blues: "Many fish
bites if ya got good bait, here's a little somethin'
I would like to relate..."

Pete: Is anyone fishing with better bait now?

Jeff: There's a small company just southwest of Chicago
that owns and operates a contrarian network called the
Vidsense Video Snack Network. Unlike all the online ad
networks, however, Vidsense doesn't distribute any ads.
Instead, it delivers what it calls Video Snack Bars across
a network of more than 25,000 safe-for-work websites. Each
Video Snack Bar carries up to eight unbranded video thumb-
nails, selected for their proven ability to attract and
drive specific audience demos directly to single-sponsor
destination pages. Each click on a Video Snack Bar thumb-
nail resolves on a single-sponsor destination page where
the requested video clip plays while immersed in and
surrounded by the brand message. As far as I know, Vidsense
is the only pure brand reach network on the Internet, and
the only one that can deliver the scalable brand reach
numbers of TV ? upwards of 300 million self-qualified
visitors per month ? with the immersive interactive perform-
ance of digital. If you want effective, scalable brand
reach you should contact Jaffer Ali at Vidsense.

Pete: Why aren't there more companies like Studio One
Networks and Vidsense?

Jeff: Because everyone uses the same supply-side digital
tools, because no one driving the digital bus is old
enough to remember Sal Mineo, and because they don't teach
common sense in business school.

Pete: Thanks, Jeff. Always interesting.

Jeff: Thank you, Pete.

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