Things May Be Looking Up For Yahoo And Second Life

Yesterday afternoon Yahoo announced it would be acquiring ad network Blue Lithium for 300MM in cash. What does this mean?

• 
  Yahoo needs to continue to bolstering the one asset that has little competition, their digital distribution network
  
  
  
  • 
    As Yahoo stock declined, even I jumped in the game knowing that this asset is not something to treat lightly. I think I was right. Take a look at what people are saying about Yahoo stock
    
    
    
    • Bloomberg
    
    
    • WSJ
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• I would say that this is a great move for Yahoo. If Jerry Yang cannot turn things around, it will be Yahoo's network that attracts all of the suitors.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Amidst a sea of naysayers, virtual world, Second Life has been achieving some pretty cool things. First, SL has reached peak concurrency of 50, 000 users (for all you fans of Second Life, you know this is a pretty big deal.

Second Life has created something call the Second Life Grid in order to separate the Virtual World of Second Life from other elements of the Second Life experience. I am a huge fan of this, as there are elements of Second Life that do not need to occur within the 3D environment.

Tags: second life, blue lithium, Yahoo, Jerry Yang, Second Life Grid, SL, Virtual Worlds

Ad Block May Equal Content Block

Are online banners really that obtrusive? For some maybe they are, but what people may forget is that it is the ad that pays for the content. In case you have missed the online ad blocking craze, have a look at some of the clippings below. I would love to hear what you think!

clipped from adblockplus.org

Adblock Plus: Save your time and traffic

Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose “Adblock” from the context menu — the banner won’t be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or choose a filter subscription, then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Whiting Out the Ads, but at What Cost?

The larger importance of Adblock is its potential for extreme menace to the online-advertising business model. After an installation that takes but a minute or two, Adblock usually makes all commercial communication disappear. No flashing whack-a-mole banners. No Google ads based on the search terms you have entered.

From that perspective, the program is an unwelcome arrival after years of worry that there might never be an online advertising business model to support the expense of creating entertainment programming or journalism, or sophisticated search engines, for that matter.

Tags: ad blocking, adblock, new york times, online advertising, web strategy, marketing

Google: Evil or Just Plain Smart

History has shown us, just because someone is brilliant, does not mean they are not subject to evil. Today we are faced with a company that possesses some of the most brilliant minds in business, technology and communications. Many of us use and love their products. Still, as outlined in a great article in the economist last week, an increasing number of parties find this company to be the one thing it vowed never to be, evil.

…and so we return to the ago old dispute, is Google repurposing other people’s  content to make money?

I found The Economist story right after searching for show times for the movie “Superbad” (which I highly recommend). I am not really sure when Google began including local show times, but it was the first time I realized how many vertical search engines Google could potentially put out of business with their new Universal Search.

I took a few screenshots of the experience (pictured below). From a consumer standpoint, I have to admit, I would rather just go to Google and get the best results and any other information I need than go to Fandango or Moviefone. From a business standpoint, where do we draw the line?

My major issue is the fact that Google’s monopolization of information is not rooted in shady business practices (at least not to the best of my knowledge). It is rooted in the fact that they simply have a better algorithm and smarter, more effective services. Can we punish them for that?

Tags: google, fandango, universal search, search,  the economist

Mobile SEO

Have you begun to consider SEO for your mobile or WAP pages?
Perhaps it is time to start doing so. Have a look at this article in information week.

clipped from www.informationweek.com Here are some SEO basics for any mobile site: * Optimize for keywords and short phrases * Include keywords in title tag, H1’s, H2’s and content * Think how your title will appear as a mobile bookmark * Provide keyword-rich anchor text for internal links * Get indexed. Provide Google Mobile Site Map.

More On Ovi Via The Mobile Diva

I love Sphere!

Sphere helps me keep the conversation going after I have written a post, it rocks.

After I uploaded my post on Ovi, I "sphered it" and found some great, relevant content. I found the video below via Darla Mack, the Mobile Diva. Through the Diva I also discovered Twango which I am now signing up for and will report back.

Anyhow, have a look at this video about Ovi.

Tags: ovi, Darla Mack, The Mobile Diva, Sphere, Twango

Nokia: Oy Vey!

As Apple continues to conquer the digital download market, the threat of Apple achieving the same status in the mobile arena is weighing heavily upon the mobile industry. Apple's potential stronghold in the mobile industry is subsequently posing a threat to various related industries. Entertainment and gaming are two industries becoming more inextricably linked to the mobile devices than ever before, and if Apple gains enough control over the handset, they will inevitably gain control over the things that run on the handset.

In response to Apple's mobile play, Nokia issued a series of press releases announcing various devices and services for the mobile consumer.

Ovi and Content Convergence

The idea of content convergence is often mistaken. I often make reference to Henry Jenkins’ notion of The Black Box Fallacy which refers to how people tend to think, one day all of our media will be contained in one unit. This will most likely not be the case (can you imagine carrying around a cable box all day :) ).

 The reality is that we will have many devices for different purposes (the bedroom, the car, personal devices) but the content will be interoperable across a variety of devices. (For example, Facebook online will contain the same information as the Facebook that is accessed via a mobile phone, however the interface will be appropriated for your phone, taking into account the time and place that one uses their phone).

The diagram above is a model of how content convergence/hardware divergence works.

As usual I digress, back to Ovi

Ovi is the name of Nokia’s new internet services brand. Ovi is Finnish for “door”. The metaphor here is apparent; Ovi is the door to your all of your digital content and your social network. Ovi will also act as a door to two of their other new services, The Nokia Music Store (a platform that rivals iTunes) and N-Gage, Nokia’s mobile gaming service.

Incidentally, I love the copy on the site that refers to N-Gage:

“Keep the action going while you’re on the go with the power of N-Gage”

This line furthers the notion that the gaming does not stop when you turn the console off. The convergent nature of emerging platforms is made for gamers on the go.

The Nokia Music Store

 I got an iPhone about a month ago and the one thing I cannot do with it that I want to do (besides cut and paste) is download music on the spot. It seems like a no-brainer, right?

"The Nokia Music Store brings together a powerful combination of great music and great devices in an easy to use way. You can select from a huge range of music, including local music from your country, and download it directly to your Nokia device," say’s Tommi Mustonen, the head of Nokia's music activities.

This is a big step.

 Payment can be made by a variety of methods including paypal. This is certainly a big step as mobile commerce becomes more of a reality. There is another point in the release that I thought was very compelling,

 …the Nokia Music Store aims to provide more locally relevant music than any other digital music store. If you want to see what others are enjoying, the Nokia Music Store provides a dynamic recommendations engine as well as genre-based instant playlists.

 The one drawback to all this (for me) is that there was no mention of  a US release date, however the music store will be opening across key European markets this fall with additional stores in Europe and Asia opening over the coming months.

Press Releases:

 Meet Ovi, the Door to Nokia's Internet Services

Go Play: Nokia Unveils Four Devices Optimized for Entertainment, Music and Games

 The Nokia Music Store - Your Music, Your Way

Tags: Ovi, Nokia, Mobile, Entertainment, Convergence, Black Boc Fallacy, Phone, iphone, Apple, digital downloads, music, facebook, N-gage, Nokia music store, itunes, Tommi Mustonen

Scoble Stirs The Pot and The Search World Goes Wild

I posted earlier in the day about Robert Scoble’s discussion on what he refers to as Social Graphs, and how Facebook, Techmeme and Mahalo can overcome Google in four years. Apparently I was one of hundreds of blogger's to react to Scoble’s video. So far there have been 112 comments on Scoble’s blog post alone.

From what I have read, everyone seems to appreciate Scoble’s proposition, but many find it hard to come to terms with a few key concepts Scoble brings up.

• The ability for human aided search to scale


• The fact that Google is too large to adapt it’s algorithm to create a more human engine

Bob Warfield did a great write up on the topic (I recommend heading over there for some further insight) and of course there is some criticism of Scoble.

All in all, I think Scoble got us thinking, which as I said earlier is never a bad thing!

Tags: Robert Scoble, Search, Google, Mahalo, Techmeme, Facebook, Bob Warfeild, Human Search

Is it already time to trade in my iPhone?

Sure, I love my iPhone, but I have to admit, if Google were to come out with a phone I would be very tempted

clipped from www.rediff.com Google, the nearly $13.5 billion search engine major, is believed to be a fortnight away from the worldwide launch of its much-awaited Google Phone (Gphone) and has started talks with service providers in India for an exclusive launch on one of their networks. Talks are believed to be taking place with Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and Vodafone Essar, respectively India's first and third largest mobile telephony operators, and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

An Algorithm for a Social Fabric

I just got done watching Robert Scoble’s talk on Social Graph Based Search. While I find it very compelling, there are a few points that I take issue with. Before I get into that, I want to first note the overwhelming sense of “eventness” or Sobytiinost I felt while when watching this video. The influx of information occurring on Kyte.tv adds a great deal to the conversation. I would love to hear what Brad Berens has to say about the Kyte.tv experience.

Issue’s I have with Robert Scoble’s point of view…

• 
  

   Each reference to SEO has negative connotations.

  
  

oWhile I understand there are some bad practices out there, there are many SEO’s who are marketers trying to disseminate their information.

o Not every web designer is good at coding pages for search, and not everyone has as many friends as Robert does (at least in the social media space. Remember, we are still in the early adopter phase and many of us are still talking in an echo chamber) and it is more difficult to get them up the social graph (at least in the initial phase of marketing).

oRobert, I totally see your point, but SEO is not all noise.

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   I do believe that social fabrics can lead us to more relevant results, but…

  
  

o Robert, you make a point of how you have 5000 friends and Walt Mossberg may have 100,000. The cause of this is Mossberg benefits from the exposure he gets from the Wall Street Journal, a major media company. This exposure is synonymous to a monster inbound search link (and a paid one at that).

o There will always be power structures in the media.

• 
  

  I am not saying I am for or against them, but as power structures form, a certain level or corruption is inevitable (at least this is what history teaches us).

  
  


• 
  

  Once a person reaches a certain level of power it is very difficult for the masses to overthrow them, for the masses trying to climb the ladder are too busy making nice to these figures and working their way up.

  
  


• 
  

   I can point to examples of this in the new social media space (although I don’t care to do so at this time)

  
  

Robert, thanks for this talk!

Whether I agree with all, some or none, it really got me thinking, and I appreciate this above anything else.

MY NOTES ON SCOBLE’S TALK (not editorialized)

Social Graph Based Search (and why it will up end the search system in four years)

• 
  Who are Google’s Main Competitors
  
  
  
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    Techmeme-  Creation of “the fabric”
    
    
    
    • Vertical search based on a limited, hand selected number of sources
    
    
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      SEO resistance
      
      
      
      • Either in the “Techmeme” or trusted by the Techmeme pool
      
      
      • The chain of trust—hard to break into
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
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    Mahalo-
    
    
    
    • Human beings are better at displaying stuff than machines
    
    
    • Offensive aimed directly at Google
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    Facebook- Why does it matter?
    
    
    
    • Trust Level
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

• The Problem With Google

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  Google works off of <Title><H1> <P1> and inbound (of course there are hundreds of other factors, but these are the ones that Scoble mentions) links that are, or are not relevant (link baiting etc.)

  
  
  
  
  • 
    

    Scoble refers to Google as “noise”

    
    
    
    
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      Talks of the trouble of betting around the noise of Google

      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
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     Refers to SEO as noise

    
    
  
  
  
  


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   “Google does not understand social behaviors

  
  
  
  
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    Says that they cannot due to business related factors

    
    
  
  
  
  

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  What Can Be Done?
  
  
  
  • 
    Mahalo should be building on top of Google’s algorithmic approach
    
    
    
    • Understand the old school
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    What if Mahalo hooked up with Facebook to build a fabric?
    
    
    
    • Building a fabric of affinity
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    We need and open social graph
    
    
    
    • Facebook is a walled garden and this is a problem
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Facebook has figured out how to lock out SEO’s
  
  
  • Techmeme is building a pure fabric due to lack of SEO’s
  
  
  
  

• 
  Why Four Years?
  
  
  
  • It is going to take two years for Mahalo to be recognized as a top search engine (same with Facebook, Techmeme)
  
  
  • It will take another two years for people to catch up
  
  
  
  

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  The problem of scaling
  
  
  
  • 
    The community and the exponential number of those related to the community (the output decreases at each exponential levels)
    
    
    
    • Does not seem to scale
    
    
    • 
      What if everyone were to have there one little Mahalo
      
      
      
      • 
        Facebook
        
        
        
        • An algorithm for a social fabric
        
        
        
        
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Tags: Robert Scoble, Google, Mahalo, Kyte.tv, SEO, SEM, Techmeme, Facebook, Walled Garden, Calacanis, Social Fabric, Search,  Eventness, Sobytiinost, Brad Berens, Walt Mossberg, WSJ, Wall Street Journal, Media

Ass Scratching Good Advertising On You Tube

The purchase of YouTube by Google for 1.65 billion dollars had some asking whether or not this deal was actually brokered by Dr. Evil.

Now, faced with the task of monetizing this investment, the fun shall begin!

Before we talk about how Google will monetize YouTube’s content, let’s take a look at some of the content that advertisers are lining up to sponsor.

Okay, so we all know that YouTube is the best thing that has ever happened to online video, but my guess is the video above is indicative of 60-70% of all videos on YouTube (in terms of length and quality of content). In light of this, how effective will YouTube’s new InVideo ad platform be (here are a few more relevant links for you, InVideo On Marketing Pilgrim, InVideo On Will Video For Food, InVideo On BoomTown).

My guess is that they have some tweaking ahead, but I am excited that we are finally moving away from the dreaded, throwback style of advertising, the pre-roll!

Tags: youtube, google, invideo, boomtown, marketing pilgrim, will video for food, preroll. ugc

Collaborative Adverblending

Collaboration, “pull” style marketing, branded entertainment are at the tip of every marketer’s (well, every marketer who is paying attention) tongue these days. The question is how many marketers are actually walking the talk, and how much of the walk is really effective?

A few months ago Blendtec released a fairly ridiculous video where they used their home blending device to blend an iPhone.

Borrowing a page from the Ginzu Knife play book, Blendtec managed to achieve something with their product that no one would ever want to achieve. Not only that, but what was achieved in this video was hardly indicative of how well the Blendtec blender can achieve real world applications (i.e. making a smoothie), adding little to no perception of value to the product.

So was this campaign a success?

Advertising does not always need to prove value to be successful; however the advertiser must realize this as part of their strategy. Advertising can be very successful as a means of reinforcing the value proposition put out by PR and Marketing. Furthermore, advertising can be an inlet for consumers to begin their foray into a brand’s story, which is exactly what this campaign achieved.

You Tube Stats

Views: 1,780,286

Comments: 5180

Favorited: 3728 times

Not bad for a product most people have not heard of!

The question is how will Blendtec leverage this awareness in order to continue the story?

Tags: Ginzu Knife, Blendtec, iphone, advertising, marketing, PR, branding, you tube, video, collaboration

Transmedia Storytelling…Meet Retail

I have been doing a lot of talking about transmedia storytelling lately. While I have a number of entertainment clients, I have a greater number of retail clients.

Does this mean that my posts about transmedia storytelling should be ignored by those clients :) ?

Of course not!

What Are Brands?

I am not about to fully define what a brand is in this post, but would anyone out there disagree that there is a story inherent in a brand’s DNA?

Brands are, in a sense, stories.

Even if you feel this is a bit of a stretch, what is not a stretch is that the advertising that supports a brand should be a story.

So why are entertainment companies so far ahead in the realm of storytelling, and consequently transmedia storytelling?

The obvious answer is that storytelling is the entertainment company’s core business and it not as difficult for them to adapt when it comes to marketing and advertising.

Tell Me A Re-Tale

I just read an article by Steve Smith about a company called NearbyNow. NearbyNow is a company that allows consumers to “search the mall” (as it says on their site) via web, mall kiosk and mobile (for more on NearbyNow check out the site, I am sure I am not doing them justice, as I just found out about them and have not done all my research yet).

Unlike the notion of multi-channel retail which aims to create a uniform messages and services across various channels, transmedia retailing seeks to create a linear path of action from one medium to the next.

In the example that Steve Smith uses, mall goers are prompted via SMS to go to Foot Locker for a Blue Light special, moving them from a tradition experience, to an interactive one, then onto a traditional sale.

Not the best story in the world for most, but ask a retailer what they think about this story. I bet they enjoy it!

Tags: NearbyNow, Steve Smith, Mobile Marketing, Transmedia Storytelling

Time Warner Cable Looks Back

Time Warner Cable has made an interesting move in the battle against ad-skipping. A product called Look Back allows consumers to view any program that they missed during the day the ability to watch it until midnight. The fast forward feature will be shut off.

Will this type of feature be enough to capture the 83% of homes that do not currently own a DVR?

I think not...but I do find this test to be interesting! Stay tuned

clipped from www.nytimes.com Under pressure from advertisers, the Nielsen Company, which rates TV viewing, introduced a system this year that shows how many people were tuned in during commercials, a departure from the old measure of how many people watched the program. Confronted with Nielsen data showing that many DVR viewers do watch advertisements, most advertisers agreed this year to pay for television viewing based on how many people watch their commercials either live or on DVR within three days of the initial showing. In essence, Look Back will provide the kind of time-shifted television viewing that has persuaded millions of Americans to pay $10 or so every month to cable companies or to TiVo. DVRs are now in about 17 percent of American households, but that figure is growing rapidly as more cable operators sell the service.

Audio Killed The Radio Planner

Okay, I do realize that the headline is similar to MediaPost’s this morning, but what else can this post be titled? :)

MediaVest has made a very interesting announcement. Terrestrial broadcast radio will no longer be referred to as radio; rather it will be referred to as audio.

I realize that, to some, this seems to be a mere semantic difference, not worthy of a press release. In my opinion, if MediaVest lives up to this statement with its actions (i.e. The way it plans communications), this move is certainly worthy of a press release, as this announcement acknowledges the significant change that has been occurring in the media space for some time.

Content Convergence/Media Divergence

Many people in the media industry today are paying blind lip service to the idea of media convergence. While there is a convergence occurring, it is not the type of convergence that many people are talking about.

I created the slides below while flying home from the Microsoft Strategic Accounts Summit in Seattle. I was reading Henry Jenkins, “Convergence Culture” and got inspired (how cool is it when inspiration manifests in the form of PowerPoint :) ). Jenkins talks a great deal about transmedia storytelling and how it is central to the idea of content convergence.

Jenkins talks about his idea of the Black Box Fallacy and how we will never have one box that feeds us all of our media, rather we will have various boxes of different sizes and purposes feeding us similar content. We may have a black box for the living room, one for the car and another for the hiptop, but the fact of the matter is, it will never be one black box to serve all media needs.

The Audio Planner

In light of Jenkins notion of content convergence, the idea of an audio planner makes a bit more sense. As referenced in the slides below, radio is merely a delivery technology, while audio is the medium that contains the content (the message).

I am not advocating that agencies should have discreet audio planners (and I am not sure how MediaVest’s announcement will effect the way they plan media) but the fact that they are acknowledging the fact that radio is not the medium, and it is simply a delivery technology, seems to be a step in the right direction.

If MediaVest were to create the role of audio planner, things may get confusing as radio planners would have to familiarize themselves with everything from radio, to podcasting to mobile. Perhaps it would not be so bad.

The Storyteller Versus The Delivery Strategist

Perhaps we need to call “creatives” Storytellers and media planners, Delivery Strategists. Again this is a semantic difference, but the language may help advertising/media professionals understand their roles better.  Then again, I think we need to do a better job of getting these disciplines closer together. After all, not every story can be told through every delivery technology.

What do you think, should communications be planned by delivery technology as opposed to media channel?

Tags: media, electric media, digital media, convergence, media convergence, transmedia storytelling, Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture, communications, mediapost, mediavest, radio, audio, delivery technology, medium, black box phallacy, microsoft

Blame Second Life/I Am Getting Some Focus

…as if it were Linden Labs fault that hundreds of marketers have thoughtlessly followed the hype like lemmings. If you launch a television campaign with no strategy, it will suck, why would you think you can launch a Second Life campaign and have it magically work wonders?

• Marketers who have “failed” and now are complaining about your failure, blame yourself


• Marketers who have “failed” and have learned something, good for you


• Marketers who see experimentation as a series of iterative minor victories, ultimately leading to one larger victory, give me a call!

I am sick of marketing/business folks saying that the Second Life bubble has burst. Perhaps the bubble has burst for the unimaginative seekers of unearned publicity, but go talk to a resident of Second Life. Or better still, come with me to the SLCC in Chicago this year, you will see that, for the more creative minds, the bubble is still growing!

But I digress…

The Focus Experience and The Virtual Focus Group

The day before I turned 30, I had and article published in iMediaconnection entitled, “Focus Groups Get A Second Life”. In this article I was not really speaking of the type of exercise that one could liken to a more traditional focus group, rather I was speaking of something that I have been referring to as the focus experience (which is in no way endemic to Second Life or Virtual Worlds).

Last night I helped organize a group of PR professionals to get together at the iAsk Center in order to gain insights on new media and it was awesome!

Jack Tatar, President of GEM Research Solutions (a real life focus group company) contacted me after reading an article of mine and a seed for a great relationship was planted. I was enticed by what Jack was doing and new that there was an opportunity here for Morpheus Media and GEM Research/iAsk to work together. While nothing is set in stone, we have been speaking, so stay tuned :)

Tags: focus experience, imediaconnection, iask, iask center, focus groups, GEM Research, Jack Tatar, Morpheus Media, Second Life, Virtual Worlds, PR, PRSA,  SLCC, SLCC Chicago

What Is Content and Does Google Have Any?

How exactly does one go about defining what content is?

They look at wikipedia of course!

1. That which is contained.


2. Published information and experiences such as many novels, movies, music, game, webpages, presentations, organized data, etc.


3. The n-dimensional space contained by an n-dimensional polytope (called volume in the case of a polyhedron and area in the case of a polygon).

I think we can skip the last one for this post, but the other definitions may help us on our quest.

Alright, so the point of this post was not really define content; rather it was to take a look at Google News comment system (if you want a good write up on it head over to Danny Sullivan’s post on Search Engine Land.

I want to get one thing out of the way, I think this idea is a great experiment and I love Google for coming up with interesting ways to think about content. All journalist’s (and consumers) know that the news is largely defined by the people who tell it, and that a firm persuasion of a thing can make it so (that is William Blake-ism).

Back to defining content:

The second definition from wikipedia highlights concepts such as information, presentation and organized data. If we were to go with this definition as gospel, Google has been in the content business for a long time. If you were to ask someone at Google this question they will tell you otherwise.

The Content Business Has Changed

My personal feeling is that the content business has changed.

1. In older times content companies were responsible for finding, harboring and producing talent.


2. While this is still true (to a degree), today’s content company can only be successful by providing an expansive forum for content creation/generation by both the traditional producer and the prosumer.


3. The line between Content and the Content Forum have been blurred to the point where, those who wish to spend their time insisting that they are in the content business, and refuse to create forums for co-creation and collaboration,  will certainly perish in the annals of media.

The true reason that I love this approach is that it creates a meta-layer of content through mediated intervention.

This new layer of content seeks to be a new way to make news more fare and balanced than ever before. I truly hope that Google makes this work!

Tags: Google, Google News, Google New Comments, Danny Sullivan, Meta Content, Co Creation, Collaboration, Prosumer, William Blake, Wikipedia, Information, Content

Throw out your iPhone, Get Yourself A GPhone

I cannot wait to see how this one plays out. I would think the better strategy would be for Google to work with Apple, but I have been wrong in the past (once)

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Google to unveil phone of its own by next year Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, recently said that mobile phone adverts are "twice as profitable or more than non-mobile phone ads because they are more personal".

Misleading Information About New Media Used To Help Pay For Fogies’ Martini Lunches (Part 2)

There has been some great commentary today:

Frank Shaw:

People spend time where they receive value, plain and simple. This could be knowledge, it could be entertainment, it could be social, it could be a combination of all of the above. If time spent watching TV dropped, it's because the perceived value, either relative or real, of what is on there fell.

Well said Frank. I love how you bring perceived value and the relationship between the advertiser and the consumer up.

Cory Bergman

One theory is as people spend more time consuming digital media than traditional media, they’re consuming more on-demand and short-format content, which “net net” results in less time spent consuming media overall.

Marc Cohen

Consumers will always prefer their entertainment content free, regardless of the medium - old or new. Always bet on advertising supported content.

What do YOU think???

Tags:  digital media, new media, VSS, traditional media, Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Communications.

Misleading Information About New Media Used To Help Pay For Fogies’ Martini Lunches

I just read an article in MediaPost entitled, “Time Spent With Media Falters, Digital Spawns Shorter Attention Spans”  that covers a study by Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Communications.

My first question is, who commissioned this report?

Highlights

I do not feel like paying two grand for this report so I am going to have to comment on MediaPost’s extractions. If anyone wants to send me the report for free, I promise to read it.

"For example, consumers typically watch broadcast or cable television at least 30 minutes per session, while they spend as little as five to seven minutes viewing consumer-generated video,"

Fine this may be true (to a degree), but what does this really mean? Is this something advertisers should fear?

• Are modern consumers really glued to the TV for 30 minutes per session or are they getting up during commercials or just plain skipping them. Come on guys, this is total crap. If I am tied to the TV for 30 minutes it is because the show is 30 minutes long sans commercial

MediaPost then goes on to talk about how the study mentions a decline in ad supported media.

• Ummm. Did they ever stop to think that this is due to the fact that much of the advertising is irrelevant and consumers have learned how to avoid ad supported media where possible?

Then they say that the share of time spent with "media supported predominately by consumers" rose to 46.2%.

• I think the answer here is obvious. Advertisers, sponsor better content or learn how to operate in the new media ecosystem. Trust me, it can be done!

The report  postulates that we are becoming a less literate society due to the decline in print consumption

• What does this mean? First of all, people do read text in the digital media space. Second, I would say that we are more media literate than ever before.

Why This Study Bothers Me

Not having the actual study I cannot tell if it is the study itself, or Mediapost’s analysis of the study that cooks my goose. Here is a direct quote from MediaPost:

“THE RAPID SHIFT OF CONSUMERS toward digital media options for news, information and entertainment is producing an unintended consequence for all of the industry's stakeholders--especially advertisers: It's reducing the amount of time people spend with media. For the first time in recent memory, the amount of time consumers spend with media has declined, according to the 2007 edition of an influential industry report, which forewarns that the efficiency of using digital media is the primary factor.”

Come on guys…

Perhaps we should try and stifle the growth of digital media so that lazy execs (I know a lot of people in traditional media that I respect and I am not pointing a finger at the industry, rather I am point a finger at those people who want to leave work at 3 to go play golf while the digital folks stay at the office until midnight trying to figure out the future of advertising and marketing) can continue to enjoy martini lunches and executive golf outings.

Tags: mediapost, digital media, new media, VSS, traditional media, Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Communications.

We Just Can’t Get Enough Mobile This Summer at A MediaCirc.Us

Have I Been Fixated On Mobile Lately? :)

I ran my first mobile campaign in the early part pf 2006 for the New York Times and saw mediocre results (the campaign was not a failure by the standards of someone who values return on experimentation, but in terms of direct response, it was not great). Since that time I have been reluctant to advocate mobile campaigns to my clients, as I feel that the US market has not been ready to deal with data on their palmtops. This is beginning to change.

Sure, we are pretty savvy with SMS and MMS at this point (my mother MMS’ed me a photo from the Canadian Rockies, but she is a super mom), however data is still relatively expensive at this point. Besides, how memorable of an impression can you really make with SMS and how many brands (outside of entertainment) can get away with sending multimedia.

AMediaCirc.Us <3’s 360 Degree and Social Strategies

As I have alluded to in my Social Networking 2.M posts (here is part 2 of Social Networking 2.M) and discussion on mobile email, the promise of mobile for brands is in marketing, not advertising. We had a great conversation at AMediacirc.us in early July about mobile marketing versus mobile advertising and we got to hear from Dan Meehan and Richard Hurring amongst others.

The Bottom Line Is That Mobile Is Not A Strategy In, And Of Itself Dammit!

A Strategy Is A Strategy, Mobile Is One Vessel To Help Deliver A Strategy.

Mobile Broadband Users to Pass 1 Billion by 2012 with HSPA Accounting for Over 70%

I saw this press release this morning and thought about how near we were to a world of ubiquitous computing, and a world of ubiquitous computing is inevitably a world of ubiquitous marketing. To some (consumers who hate advertising and marketers who hate to work), this concept may sound like a nightmare, and to others it is a challenge.

• How do we market effectively in a world of ubiquitous marketing?


• How do we not bombard consumers in a world of ubiquitous marketing?


• How do we add value in a world of ubiquitous marketing?


• How do we stay consistent in a world of ubiquitous marketing?


• How do we tell meaningful stories in a world of ubiquitous marketing?

Let’s try and figure this one out. The future of marketing depends on it!

Tags: SMS, MMS, palmtop, AMediacirc.us, Richard Hurring, Mobile Email, Mobile, Mobile Marketing, Advertising, Dan Meehan, Social Networking 2.M, HSPA, Ubiquitous Computing, Ubiquitous Marketing