Convergence new buzzword for marketers Leong Hung Yee KUALA LUMPUR: Although “convergence” is very much a buzzword these days, it's really nothing new to the telecommunications industry, said OMD Malaysia managing director Andreas Vogiatzakis. Understanding how convergence had evolved and the available channels for marketing would help marketers to better promote their products to their audience, he said in his presentation at the Malaysian Media Congress and Media Market Expo 2007 on Tuesday. “Today, with the convergence of communication technologies, one tool is all that is needed to perform a variety of tasks at the same time,” he said.

For the younger generation, mobile devices could represent this one tool.

Vogiatzakis said this generation, knowing nothing of black and white TV and seeing mobile phones as a standard accessory, was said to have a short attention span, heavy into personal computers and music, and lived through the Internet.

“The question to ask about convergence is how will it impact marketing or advertising in time to come, particularly as consumers' attention span keeps coming down,” Vogiatzakis said, adding that on average, a consumer would be exposed to between 7,000 and 8,000 messages in a single day.

“A 30-second television commercial is considered long. If you do not capture your audience there and then, chances are, you will lose your audience completely,” he said.

It is not that advertising would become less important in the convergence era. It was just that the nature of advertising or more accurately, the marketing of products and services, would change, he said.

“Mass marketing is dead. Marketers today need to create media moments with consumers on how to talk effectively with their target group,” he said, adding that these changes would come as a result of converged use of media and the advancement of technology.