■Opinion28
“4-Wheeled Driving Force for IMC in the 21st Century”
● MAF done and dusted
The annual MAF (Mobile Ad Forum) that we co-organize with mediba and JMC drew to a successful close. I’d like to thank the 900 or so people who kindly attended. Once again I was entrusted with coordinating a panel discussion but time soon slipped away and so I will use this space to introduce the “21st Century IMC” that I didn’t have time to cover at the event.
● Contemporary Automobile Technology
Cars move forward by delivering torque generated in the engine to the wheels.
Cars that deliver torque to the front wheel can take advantage of the various merits that stem from a smaller mechanism. The front wheels are also connected to the handle and so are easy to control. However, vehicles that deliver torque to the rear wheels have their own merits including larger horsepower due to separation of duties between driving force and control.
Some Japanese cars are aiming for all of these benefits and are controlling the delivery amount of driving force to each of the four wheels. The result is enhanced safety due to being able to momentarily sense and adapt to changing road conditions.
● 4-Wheeled Driving Force for IMC
So lets try and transpose the above into IMC.
The front wheels are the mass media. One of them is the printed media (newspapers, magazines) and the other is electronic media (TV, Radio). The front wheels are linked to the steering wheel so the driver (advert owner) can drive it anywhere he likes.
The rear wheels are the mobile and PC Internet media. The Moving forward only with the front wheels (mass media) is tricky (reaching customers), so transferring a bit of the driving force allotment (allot budget) to the rear wheels will bring about a zesty tailwind. While the rear wheels to have the potential to exceed the conveying capability of the front wheels, they sometimes speed off on account of not being connected to the steering wheel. In these instances it is necessary to use to front wheels deftly to get back in position.
What comes into question is the efficiency of a medium, and in the case of a car it is the tire performance. Selecting tires that reflect a unique driving style and road conditions, and carefully allocating budget to each tire so that its driving performance can be exploited to the fullest extent is the key to efficiency (fuel consumption). For example, put PC Internet and printed media on full blast if you want to gain the consent of everyday people. But if you want to win their approval you need the electronic media and mobile wheels to be in top gear.
● The Winning Trinity
When heading towards a campaign goal, how do you drive the vehicle speedily and safely?
“IMC in the 21st Century” which straddles a continually changing competitive environment for users (road conditions), as in the case of the above-mentioned Japanese car, advert owners (the driver), advertising companies (steering system), media companies (wheels), will all join together to become one team at which moment high-spec integrated driving is needed to decide which wheels get how much power.
You can read all back numbers of DD News in Japanese from here.
