Consumers are in control: what’s the future?

AdAge (reg. req.) reports on the Cannes section entitled “Building a Better Mousetrap” in which Martin Sorrell, Howard Draft, Chuck Porter and Lachlan Murdoch debated the challenges for the media and advertising industry in a consumer-controlled, on-demand world. The battle has just begun and companies are not (yet) defeated, but they need to react fast and find out new ad sales models. Unfortunately the article doesn’t say much about the possible solutions.
On Le Monde (in French) Laurence Girard provides a deeper view on the advertising world and the consumer becoming an actor, not just a passive viewer, in the promotional process. The article quotes, among the others, the opinion of Russ Klein, marketing director at Burger King: “L’important, c’est ce que les gens disent de nos marques, pas ce que la marque dit. Nous voulons créer une conversation autour de notre marque” (“The important thing is what people say about our brand, not what our brand says. We want to create a talking around our brand”).