Lee Doyle spoke in front of a crowd of eager advertising majors and other Syracuse University students in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium on Monday evening. The presentation, titled ‘Building Brands in a Digital World — Digital Changes Everything,’ focused on advertising in the digital world.

Doyle is a managing partner of GroupM and was CEO of North America at Mediaedge:cia from 2007 to 2011. During that time, the company grew by more than 40 percent and was named Media Agency of the Year twice, by Advertising Age and Ad Week, according to a Jan. 23 SU News release.

Doyle said he became involved in advertising after taking a class on a whim and working with the media portion of a project for that class.

‘Originally, I wanted to be the next Stephen Spielberg,’ Doyle said.

Doyle’s lecture analyzed how the digital world is forcing changes in the advertising realm and how he is helping companies respond to these changes. He spoke about social media’s growing importance in a post-broadcast age.

‘The goal in media has always been to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time,’ Doyle said. ‘That has not changed.’

Doyle said experts will claim that ever since the final broadcast of the television show M*A*S*H, television viewing has become increasingly fragmented and word-of-mouth is quickly surpassing it in dominance. With the growing use of social media, a message can travel overnight and affect hundreds of thousands of people with great ease, he said.

Doyle showed a presentation he gives to companies called ‘Are You in Control Enough to Let Go?’ to demonstrate how advertisers have decided to respond to the growing importance of the digital world.

He talked about how many companies are not eager to get involved in the social media aspect of the digital world, often because they are afraid of what people may be saying.

‘I always tell them they are going to say it whether or not you are involved, so why not give them a positive message to talk about,’ Doyle said.

Doyle called the consumers involved in social media ‘ambassadors of the industry’ because they are a crucial part in spreading the message. He used the example of Windows responding to consumer complaints following Vista to show how successful social media interactions between the company and the consumer can better a product significantly.

He also touched on the future of interactions between digital products in a growing age of technology. In particular, he mentioned the increasing tendency to use multiple products to do the same activity.

‘Consumers are used to thinking wherever they left off over here on one piece of technology, they should instantly be able to pick up over there on another one,’ Doyle said.

Doyle spoke about linking television with phones and tablet devices to make a more complete consumer experience. He used the example of watching a cooking show on television and then having the recipe show up instantly on tablets rather than writing it down immediately.

Simon Dolsten, a sophomore marketing major, said he thinks there is still a lot of advertising left in traditional media, and he agreed that more focus needs to be put on the digital realm and exploring its options. He said he also found the lecture and Doyle’s ideas intriguing.

Said Dolsten: ‘I think in the upcoming years, advertising will become much more tailored to you and what you want to see.’

kmrich01@syr.edu 

Published on January 30, 2012 at 12:00 pm