Please stop asking me to convert my digital plan into TARPs!

Time and time again i am asked by those 'upstairs' to translate my digital planning into TARPs.....

So for the last few years i have estimated, calculated and basically fudged together some numbers which have been taken as gospel and reported to the respective clients.

Each time i've been asked to do this i have initially declined stating the obvious "you can't benchmark digital using TARPs", but inevitably i give in simply because i can't be arsed to argue the point.

Today is different......it's time someone stood up and said that the concept of benchmarking digital & traditional with a common planning metric is a total load of shite....whether TARPs, impressions or reach, it's still pointless.

Digital and traditional media are like chalk and cheese and nowhere is this better represented than through the chalk and cheese relations of digital and traditional planners....

Why are we chalk and cheese? For the simple reason that we think, act, plan and communicate differently. Neither are right or wrong....just dissimilar.

Migrating traditional creative and media thinking into the digital era can and does create friction.

But this is not because traditional media planners are old, close minded, patronising dickheads nor is it because digital planners are jumped up, narcissistic, too-cool-for-school wankers....it's because our approach, thinking and practices are so wildly
contrasting...

Traditional media planners apply traditional practices to digital and expect traditional outcomes such as TARPs, reach, frequency etc

Digital media planners don't truly appreciate the job traditional media does and can go off on a tangent planning and evangelising digital-only campaigns but going digital all at once is unrealistic for most clients.

However what does correlate is our identical incomprehension of each others norms.

Hence we get trapped on a merry-go-round of painful, ego bashing conversations, resulting in neither party moving forwards (how many of you have experienced that? I know i have....)

But all it takes is a little bit of education and mutual respect.

Digital is unlike any other medium that's come before it, and benchmarking it against traditional media will never suffice.

As an example, a key bone of contention between 'trads' & 'digis' - my own denomination, feel free to use it ;-) - in agencies can revolve around the revenue models.

Some clients are still billed on a percentage of media spend rather than a retainer or project basis, therefore it's in the agencies interest to spend, spend, spend the client's money when they get the chance....and rightly so!

However, digital as a medium doesn't always require big bucks.

In fact, digital can often be cheaper than traditional media due to the measurement capabilities which subsequently help to increase targeting, optimisation and effectiveness.

Pin-pointing effectiveness leads to refining activity and spending less money to achieve your objectives.

Great!

Not great.....with declining ad spend comes declining revenue if you're still basing your income on percentage media spend.

The other bone of contention is labour...

Digital is incredibly labour intensive with various assets, technologies, maintenance, measurement, reporting and engagement.
It is by far the most labour intensive medium in advertising history.

We, as digital planners, now have multiple roles moving from media planner to creative to production to analytics and even customer relationship management.

Traditional media planners do a tough job but it is far less hands-on than digital.

To fudge some more numbers....take what traditional planners do and double it, that's what we do (nb. this is a totally fabricated estimate based on no logic other than personal experience).

So from a traditional planners point of view, digital could negatively impact on revenue generation, it's a fad - not everyone in the world has a facebook account and it and it's only a piece of the pie...

True....

From a digital planners point of view, traditional is unneccessary and boring, we work our butts off for minimal reward in comparison to ' trads' and digital will one day rule the world so what is everyone waiting for?

True.....

We are all correct in our own way.

But ultimately we need to go back to education and mutual respect rather than fighting a war of words over whose job is more important, which channel is more valuable and whether or not digital will kill traditional media outlets.

We're so very different but also completely the same.

Our combined goal is to produce better consumer experiences with our clients brands and products....that goal should be channel agnostic.

Digital should not neccessarily replace traditional media but it should form part of a well balanced strategic plan, but a strategic plan need not have one form of measurement.

So please....lets all get along, understand each others differences and respect each others work...

But for gods sake, don't ask me to convert my digital plan into TARPs ever again.