media landscaping

Chaos Scenario

I finally got through reading Bob Garfield's latest installment of his Chaos Scenario series.  I know I'm a week late, but cut me some slack...its been busy around here.

You should know the story by now.  Mass media and the shotgun marketing strategies that it has enabled for years are both dying on the vine.  In steps disaggregated media consumption, forcing marketers to stop all of the yelling and actually build relationships with consumers...all powered by the web.  Its not happening overnight, but the winds of change are blowing and you ad agencies better prepare or find yourselves one day without a paycheck.

If you haven't read it, you should, as he has laid out tons of evidence of this change. 

I particularly like the story he tells of Jan Leth, executive creative director of OgilvyInteractive North America.  Its about an assignment they had for Six Flags.

"They had a promotion for their 45th anniversary. They wanted to give away 45,000 tickets for opening day to drive traffic. So we got a brief to do whatever: ads, microsite, whatever. But our interactive creative director just went off and posted it on Craigslist. Five hours later, 45,000 tickets were spoken for.

"No photo shoot. No after-shoot drinks at Shutters," he adds, with faux regret. Then, with somewhat less irony: "Now, the trick is, how do you get paid?"

Thats a good question.

Winners and Losers 6/9/06

Stealing a feature I love from Jo Jaffe's "Across the Sound" podcast, here are my winners and losers of the week.

Winners

Web Advertising - AdAge reports that the Web has joined the ranks of TV and Radio as a dominant reach vehicle.  This comes from the results of an OPA study reporting the huge increase in time spent on the internet and an inetersting relationship between TV and the Web.

the link between TV and the Web is striking: About 20% of all Web usage occurs while viewing TV or immediately before or after.

The results of the study...jibes with the industry trend that has interactive and digital experts sitting side by side with those that create and buy media for more traditional advertising.

The study will help advertisers understand how to create better media plans -- especially video strategies, said Dan Goodman, senior partner at Ogilvy Interactive, New York, who said he is advocating a more integrated approach.

"When interactive becomes such a pervasive part of a daily experience, it's more the norm than the exception, so why isolate it?" he asked.

The study also said, perhaps understandably, that dominant Web users skew more affluent than dominant TV users. Additionally, Web users spend more -- $5,000 more annually at the retail level. Perhaps less expected, the Web showed fewer variations in use by age and gender than other media, suggesting it's not just a youth medium.

CBS Radio announced a large text messaging deal with Vibe (via Reuters).  Of the "OLD" media platforms, Radio has always been the most conversational.  Interacting with listeners through the phone and recently IM.  This deal takes this to the next level by allowing users in their car to text message requests and comments, entries to contests etc, which takes this conversation to the next level.  I've called into radio stations in the past and have always been hit with a busy signal.  This gets around that.

XM Radio - Media Post reports that XM's Inno portable player will soon be dynamically serving full motion and video ads on the player. 

Loser

COX Interactive - Silicon Valley Watcher reports that COX, in an effort to protect the classified revenue earned by its 42 newspapers, has blocked its connectivity clients access to Craigslist. 

NBC and YouTube - The is the first time I have ever had YouTube as a loser in my book.  But as I posted earlier, giving an advertiser (NBC) premium placement of their video content as part of an ad deal seems very counter to the DNA of You Tube. 

Google Base being tested...results not in

ClickZ reports that As Google Base Builds, Local Advertisers and Vertical Sites Get on Board.  BUT...no results are in yet.  The article demonstrates the confusion in the marketplace as to whether or not Google base is a friend or foe of the traditional online classified players.

If you aren't familiar with Google Base, it is essentially a platform for people to post items for sale.  Craigslist on steriods with a more powerful back end system that allows batch uploading.