Four of the most persuasive words in the marketing world used to be ?As seen on TV.? How quickly things alter. Media fragmentation is making marketing preferences increasing complex, with current predictions signifying that there may be fewer than 10 ? 15 years left in which to establish a global or national brand the traditional way.

The Law of Evolution is not about the survival of the fittest, however the most adaptable. Pure media strength in no longer enough. Every promotion should try to step outside the traditional media boxes that have to be ticked.

Look for ideas by thinking about your target person's total time, not just their media time. When are they really in the right frame of mind to listen? As opposed to when the advertiser wants to talk?

Marker mindsets have to move away from the cosy pigeon-holing of consumers into age or socio-groups, and move toward a more realistic assessment of people's real-life, attitudes, aspirations.

This article exists because things have altered so much in the advertising world; we're trying to ground our thinking in the most fruitful earth, regardless the marching changeability of the times.

A fascinating paradox about advertising people, we passionately push clients to be open to change, however we're the least open to change ourselves. The most obvious example of this is what's going on nowadays with new mediums and technology.

Ad people are not facing the fact that, in a few short years, the 30 second commercial will no longer be the medium, but simply a medium. This means lots of people will be watching exactly what they want and not watching what they don't.

In the present day, we're seeing a vast erosion of network ratings. We're also seeing a disproportionate increase in the use of TiVo-like devices.

Yet, advertising agencies very much cling to the 30 second. They presume all this new medium and technology stuff will go away. Or, if they've been around a while, they presume they can keep doing what they're doing until they retire, leaving it for the next generation to work out. Unfortunately, this isn't going away, because viewers love the power and control they now have.

Thus, to me, there are 2 alternatives: think differently or be flushed down the 20th-century toilet. That's not just my view either. Last year, USA Today identified a new group of teens-to-twenties they call the ?Unreachables? ? people who are almost impossible to touch through the mainstream mediums.

And, recently, when Sun Microsystems? Marketing director was asked why he fired his agency of only three years, he answered, ?The big agencies only think about doing the next thirty spot.?

The good news in all this is that the new technology and media developments offer an extraordinary, never-seen-before opportunity for creativity ? the very thing agencies succeed on. Open-minded, big-thinking people will kick ass in this new world. Some already are. Our agency's BMW films are a good example.

The films were designed to solve a simple but shattering problem for our customer: Our target was no longer watching enough TV to be reached effectively: We couldn't show him the cars properly.

We sat and thought about it. We knew this person spent 10 or 12 hours a day at work. We knew he had a powerful computer on his desk. The logic was, ?Why not visit him where he is ? at the computer?? The client saw the value in the idea immediately and signed on.

There were risks involved, for sure, like figuring out how to make a long-form film. However the idea was sound: We figured it out.

The client initially expected three million views. By summer 2003, they hit 50 million views. BMW has also had the best US sales year in its history, in the midst of an extremely tough economy. Going beyond marketing
seems to have worked well for them.

We will maintain to embrace new ideas and put our clients in category of one rather than in the field of sameness their competitors play in. It's been fun, stimulating, successful and rewarding.