Cutting through the noise
Many years ago the music creation industry underwent a very rapid, and for some quite painful, shift from hardware to computer-based production. Though there were teething problems, the ease of use, effortless recalling of previous work and overall efficiency all helped win the day. Except possibly for the listener.
Putting the power of creativity in the hands of so many for so little did a lot to increase output while at the same time diluting the overall quality of music available. A quick trawl through Soundcloud will reinforce the point. Now, if you want your music to be heard, there’s a far louder wall of noise through which potential listeners have to trawl to (hopefully) find it.
At a recent industry event, I was standing next to someone who was using an escalator to descend. While doing so he was filming himself on an iPad with a selfie stick and commentating. He was explaining to his – undoubtedly delighted – viewers that he was streaming live via Twitter’s Periscope functionality. Surely his audience would already have known this. Also, he then proceeded to show them where he was filming by pointing his iPad to the descending escalator. Media analyst Marshall McLuhan’s famous phrase “The Medium is the Message” springs to mind.
Video marketing is now of course an accepted and powerful tool and it’s coming to PR too. As equipment and data storage costs continue to decrease so the use of video increases. But as with the music creation example above, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. But people are and will.
With all the social media activity, the blurring of the traditional borders between PR and marketing, print and digital magazines, blogs, YouTube and so on, the wall of noise that we are facing is louder than is has ever been. How do you cut through this?
Knowledge, experience and dedicating appropriate amounts of time to communication leads to quality results; quality that ultimately cuts through the noise. The key is to separate the message from the medium. How? By gathering powerful information and presenting it appropriately for each platform. This applies equally across the written word as the video world.
The second essential point is brand consistency. Some of you may scoff at that but in a world where information is fired at us at a bewildering rate, making something instantly recognisable and, by brand association desirable, you are giving yourself a far greater chance of being heard.
Then of course there’s your website…
Don’t add to the noise, cut through it. That has never been more important. Sounds simple but it requires our skills to do so. Take a look at Jump and then discover more detail or get your questions answered by contacting us directly. Let us create your bespoke communications package.