Something to Think About

In most clients and agencies, media planners rarely talk to user experience planners.  The former live in the world of advertising, the latter in the world of web development.  Not only do they not talk to each other, every year at budget time they end up fighting each other for resources — not an ideal formula for collaboration.

Consumers don’t make these distinctions.  For consumers, everything is part of the overall brand experience.   They don’t stop to ask why a brand seems to be delivering a disjointed message.  They just get confused.

So as an industry we need to invent an entirely new discipline — one that is able to design, build, and optimize a cohesive user experience across both paid media and built web environments.  Who’s better qualified to invent this new discipline?  Media planners?  User experience planners?  Or someone entirely new to the industry?

Two things I do know.  It will be someone who embraces uncertainty and loves to solve hard problems.  And it won’t be someone who stubbornly holds on to the past.