New Marketing
From December 2006
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Information Sensation
By Jim BonfieldAs we approach the end of 2006, I wonder how online innovations such as consumer-generated content, online video (YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo Video, and a million others) and mobile device improvements will affect 2007 and beyond. I wonder, too, about some of the perceived lifestyle downsides we encounter due to our love affair with the internet.
Some thoughts among a few savvy friends:
Paul Andres, home loan agent, Homeloanexperts.com
“My internet ‘bah, humbug’ is: Because there is so much information available, every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks he has the knowledge and know-how. They become self-proclaimed experts in real estate investments or any other field. Everyone has a blog, everyone is about to launch a podcast, everyone has a website. What does the common person do? This is making it hard to separate the true experts from the wannabes.”
John Liken, senior VP, national tour marketing, Live Nation Entertainment
“With News Corp. trying to monetize MySpace, and Google now counting on the ad inventory YouTube has to offer, the challenge of 2007 is to reach beyond banners and keyword ads and find new ways to capture the imagination of these online-content creators. Witness the Diddy/Burger King parodies — the minute these kids start to feel focus-grouped, they’ll migrate to the next cool thing.”
Bonfield adds: Sean Combs (Diddy, P-Diddy and that guy who dated J. Lo) has formed a partnership with Burger King for joint marketing efforts, and the creation of a YouTube ‘Channel’ is a central piece to the strategy.
Jeff Holden, senior VP, Clear Channel Communications
“It’s important to understand that content is (still) king, and the method of delivery is nothing more than that. Great technical advances have allowed a number of business concepts to exist today that only a few years ago would have been impossible. However, simply having the capability to do something is not an assurance of value. Having the technical magnificence along with talent is a step in the right direction but is not a guarantee of success.”
Bonfield adds: I completely agree with the statement, “content is king.” However, I do think the method of delivery is increasingly important. Mobile devices open us to a working lifestyle previously impossible. Mobile-information consumption and the ability to react to that content will speed business in ways not yet realized.
Jason Marrone, director of operations, Wendi.com
“For 2007, you’ll see a lot more of what occurred in 2006. We’ve only scratched the surface of Web 2.0’s incredible influence on our culture. Take news, for example. Spend some time online at Digg or Newsvine, where ‘the people’ have decided what news is most important.
“It’s happening everywhere. Digital video recorders (DVRs/TiVos) also offer a similar consumer empowerment. The people now have control. We can skip the commercials. We can time shift. We can broadcast our shows to ourselves when we are not even in the same city. The programming managers and editors no longer decide for us when and what we’ll watch.”
Molly Stuart, transition specialist, mollystuart.com
“It’s not really the rules changing but the sensation of the world changing. I feel a loss over my ritual of sneaking out in my robe to the paper box just before dawn to get the paper, fixing the coffee, tucking my feet under a blanket and flipping through the rustling pages, arms held up wide to read from top to bottom. Then folding it that quarterly way that I’ve always done when I want to read in more detail or do the crossword.
“When I think about Amazon or Google ads, I fear the advertising dollar may have to abandon the newspaper to obscurity.
“I’m not saying that my way is the better way, or that you can’t snuggle up with your podcast and your BlackBerry news alerts and feel just as comforted; it’s just that, for me, I have pleasures associated with the old way, albeit just for idiosyncratic sentimentality’s sake.”
Jim Bonfield is founder of EyeballFarm Internet Marketing and SearchEngineUps and the interactive media director for Mering/Carson Advertising in Sacramento.
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