Every month, the 4 members of the panel will give their personal vision on one of 12 issues that top the CMO's agenda. This month number 4:

Media Fragmentation

by Steven Sugar
VP Quality at Bank of America

"Fifteen years ago, the advertising space was very simple. The four TV networks served most of the advertising needs, reaching 75% to 80% of the population. Media fragmentation was not something about which marketers needed to be concerned.

Fast-forward to 2007 and you find a media world that is tremendously fragmented. Although 50% of the consumer average media day is on TV, you would have to buy 20 to 25 channels and hundreds of commercials to achieve the same reach, substantially increasing the cost. The Internet is ever-changing and has added even more fragmentation with MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.
Given the ever increasing fragmentation and competition, the challenge for the CMO is to measure and maintain share of voice and achieve the marketing goals on a very fixed budget.

Marketing Resource Management (MRM) is critical to being able to plan and track the media channel mix and the related costs. It also becomes the central repository to store the results of the integrated media campaigns. The combination of mix, cost and results becomes the baseline from which to drive increased effectiveness utilizing Design of Experiment and other test and learn methodologies. Utilizing the digital asset repository in MRM is also key for ensuring consistency of message and ensuring cost effective use of the related media print ads, landing pages and other creative assets.

Media fragmentation is likely to grow even further over time. In order for the CMO to maintain and improve advertising effectiveness per dollar, it will increasingly require implementing process discipline, measuring results and utilizing enabling technology."