Turn On, Tune Out, Click Here - WSJ.com

Complete episodes of about 90% of prime-time network television shows and roughly 20% of cable shows are now available online, according to Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. There are still notable holdouts, such as Fox's "American Idol" and current seasons of HBO series like "Entourage."

Turn On, Tune Out, Click Here - WSJ.com

Here we go. Another conspiracy theory: When the economy tanks, consumers will cut cable and keep broadband. Most of their favorite shows are online already anyway. Besides, we can't survive without Facebook. Now here comes a far-fetched (but eminently possible) prediction -- once the bad economy doesn't let up, consumers cut broadband and keep their mobile contracts. Why? We can't survive without Facebook. But we've got it on our phones already anyway.

In sum, the bad economy will accelerate the convergence. Discuss.

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The Future Of Media: The Internet

"People go online to do many things," says early Internet pioneer Esther Dyson. "One of the reasons they go online is to create a presence. With Geo Cities, you had your presence in one place. With Facebook, you are distributing your presence to anyone who is your friend."

Dyson says this extends well beyond the cross-linking aspect of Facebook pages to include widgets and even real-time applications such as Twitter.

"With Twitter, people are distributing their presence incessantly. Personally, I think that is a little obsessive, but what people are really doing is collecting social interactions," she explains. "If we had a biological urge to spread our genes, now people have the means to spread their presence."
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So what's the future of the Internet? Well, technology, regulation, business models will surely be important factors, but if you look at what has really been shaping the Internet - both past and present - it is people. And some day, we may even send one over the Internet.

MediaPost Publications - The Future Of Media: The Internet - 09/23/2008

Sometimes I like to post an article just because it's good. This one's awfully good.

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Porn passed over as Web users become social

Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate, according to a web guru.

Porn passed over as Web users become social: author | Technology | Internet | Reuters

Pop the cork and pass the bubbly. I suppose it's safe to say the Web 2.0 era has officially arrived. When they write the history books, Web 1.0 will be remembered for spam, porn and phishing schemes. Yuck. With social media taking the Web 2.0 crown, what does Web 3.0 portend? Video? *.* on Demand?

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How and Why Adults and Youth Share... | Reuters

Adults Depend on Email as Source of Shared Content; Younger Generation Embraces Instant Messaging, Social Networking, Video Sharing and Text Messaging

New Independent Study Highlights Differences in How and Why Adults and Youth Share... | Reuters

Okay. Now this is getting to be way too obvious. There IS a digital generation gap.

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Notes from the Digital Generation Gap - Mom X vs. Mom Y

A recent study conducted by NewMediaMetrics found a significant difference in the types of digital behavior embraced by the X and Y generations when it comes to child raising. Gen Y is much more attached to media that connects them to other moms (online communities, blogs, video-sharing sites, etc.), while Gen X moms are more likely to embrace the web for task-oriented activities like shopping online and uploading photos. The study concludes that this might signify a shift in the way that marketers should be targeting the next new generation of moms online.

Research Brief » Blog Archive » Y Moms Connect Through The Internet; X Moms Task

More evidence, if you will, for my theory of the new generation gap. The key point is it's all coming to pass very, very quickly. The changes in attitude, media behavior, shopper behavior and general worldview are quick and clearly defined.

What does this mean for marketers? We need to toss our assumptions about how interactive creative works. We need to recalibrate how we judge ideas in the early stages of planning and development. We can't fall back on yesterday's best practices, even though they still feel freshly minted.

And it means that the marketers who persist in clinging to the tried-and-true may find themselves scrambling for new structures as early as first quarter 2009. Could happen.

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MediaPost Publications - NBC's DealMeRss.com Explores Lead-Generation Rev Potential - 07/24/2008

NBC Universal's online offerings last week included a "Biggest Loser" cookbook, "Saturday Night Live" magnets and Hollywood studio tickets. Also on sale: a 70-inch HDTV for $28,000. Less costly were a laser printer and portable keyboard. "Heroes" T-shirts and "Friday Night Lights" DVDs? No-brainers. But NBCU challenging Best Buy?

While the products may be similar, NBCU has no such ambitions with its fledgling DealMeRss.com. The austere site--resembling e-commerce circa 1995--is an experiment by NBCU's emerging digital businesses group. It hopes to gain insight into how to capitalize on growing "lead generation" revenue opportunities online.

Over time, any conclusions could be applied to its current ventures--such as Petside.com and DriverTV--where ad revenues may be principal drivers, but other revenue streams would be welcome. With lead generation, site operators can collect a fee--perhaps up to 60 cents a pop--for directing consumers (or "qualified leads") to another site, where they might make a purchase.

MediaPost Publications - NBC's DealMeRss.com Explores Lead-Generation Rev Potential - 07/24/2008

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Personal Web Page as Social Necessity

Plenty of people have personal Web pages. But are we reaching the point where you need one?

The answer is still "no" -- but that "no" is no longer quite so firm as it used to be. And sometimes that hesitation is a sign that the wheels of social change are starting to turn -- that "no" will turn into "maybe" and then from there move quickly to "yes" and then finally to "it's weird that you don't." If you're a thirtysomething, you've seen answering machines, voice mail, email addresses and cellphones complete the journey from curiosities to perceived necessities, just as our elders saw the same thing happen with TVs and phones.

Real Time - WSJ.com

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Thirty Countries Exceed 100% Per Capita Cell Phone Usage (But Not the USA)

By the first quarter of 2006, notes the report, thirty countries had already exceeded 100% per capita cell phone usage. In that same year, there were about 241 million mobile phone users in the US (roughly 80% per capita mobile phone penetration). The U.S. market is not expected to top 100% per capita penetration until the year 2013.

Included by the author is the Simmons New Media Study released in April 2008 comparing the usage of different mobile functions among consumers in the U.S. While 59% of people who have used a cell phone in the past 30 days have text messaged, and 49% have taken photos, less than 2% have shopped by mobile and less than 5% have used mobile GPS.

Research Brief » Blog Archive » Thirty Countries Exceed 100% Per Capita Cell Phone Usage

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MediaPost Publications - Study: Image-Oriented Emails Not Getting Delivered - 06/06/2008

It's back to the drawing board for marketers, whose image-oriented email campaigns are increasingly being blocked by default and Web mail clients.

That's according to Jeanniey Mullen, Email Experience Council founder and a chief marketing officer at Zinio. The Email Experience Council, the email marketing arm of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), released "Retail Email Rendering Benchmark Study." The 41-page study examines the email design practices of 104 top online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot, and examines their performance in an images-off email environment. It also includes the results of a survey of 472 marketers regarding rendering issues, conducted in conjunction with SubscriberMail, the sponsor of this study.

"The results of this study underscore the importance of proactively designing email to compensate for image suppression," said Jordan Ayan, CEO of SubscriberMail, in a statement.

MediaPost Publications - Study: Image-Oriented Emails Not Getting Delivered - 06/06/2008

Dispatch from the front lines of "Duh!"

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Video Insider » Blog Archive » As Recession Ensues, Will Most Advertisers Default To Easier-To-Justify TV Buy?

This year’s upfront selling season seems to have come with its own wrinkles that haven’t exactly continued the pattern of the past few. Instead of the continual devolvement and advertiser mutiny that we’ve seen in the past couple of years, what seems to have occurred is exactly the opposite — advertisers returning to spend upfront dollars, despite continued network ratings declines and further ad skippage.

This seems to be happening for several reasons. First, those same advertisers that held out in years past wound up paying even more in a scatter market that produced windfalls for select broadcasting and cable networks last year. Strike or no strike, they had to advertise somewhere — and the scatter market strategy wasn’t exactly value-priced. Not so sound a strategy for this year, it seems.

Second, we’ve got a ratings mess — complete with everything from program ratings to C3 ratings to average live commercial ratings — even to exact minute ratings. From the creative sidelines, it seems like there’s a free-for-all of buying criteria out there that makes locking in a TV CPM upfront… well, a lot less free for all.

Third, and perhaps most significant, is the acknowledgment that we’re headed towards a deeper recession — leading most traditional advertisers to forgo the whole “shift to digital” trend and simply fall back on the ol’ tried and true TV schedule that they figure will at least keep retail sales going and maintain their brand health measures in this uncertain economic/election year into next.

If you’re an advertiser, put all three factors together and you’re left with fear and control as your buying motivations. Which is not exactly a great place to be if you’re reliant on an industry in as much chaos and entrenched thinking as the agency business is. Combine the two dynamics and it’s not exactly a setup for guerilla-like innovative planning and gutsy creative execution either.

The real challenge for us agency folk is, instead of just taking the money, we should be out there helping lead the more enlightened advertisers to see that more inventive digital and enhanced TV programs can actually out-engage pure impression-based models based on effective frequency if they’re crafted correctly. That means demonstrating how to leverage the digital channel as more than just a vehicle to top off television awareness measures with rich-media banners. It means showing how we can truly immerse consumers in deeper, richer storytelling that is driven by their TV buys and helps activate more trial and sampling, e-couponing and sales results than simply telling the same old brand health measures and purchase intent story.

In these recession-facing times, those who lean into digital by going way beyond the brand site and rich-media banners is one way to separate the marketers and agencies on offense… from those just playing awareness defense. Even the networks themselves, notably ABC, NBC and Turner, have leading-edge, robust custom digital program offerings to help augment even the most defensive TV schedule with tremendous online engagement opportunities.

Meanwhile, if you’re like most agencies feeling the pain of marketer CFOs freezing or cutting budgets while they move to keep cash on the balance sheet and take a wait-and-see posture until Q4, your answer isn’t “wait and see” before you can truly judge whether the digital shift is continuing to expand. The answer is for us all to go on offense and prove why a more engaged consumer is more valuable than a mere impression.Otherwise, for most marketers, the move to digital will simply amount to Searching for more answers… and keywords.

Video Insider » Blog Archive » As Recession Ensues, Will Most Advertisers Default To Easier-To-Justify TV Buy?

A hearty "Amen, Brother" to Alan Shulman for this. Many factions among agencies and their clients are looking for a bail out like the early 00's dot com melt down. They can go back to all TV all the time while wagging a finger at the Net. However, I truly think the jury's still out. The recession may not run deep(er); what if we're in the second or third quarter of a get-along-hum-drum kind of economy that'll last for years? What then? Or what if a back-to-TV backlash simply doesn't work? The fall out could be severe. The winners few. And the losers might shock us.

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Enterprise Adoption of Web 2.0: It's Happening - ReadWriteWeb

If you're a business who has been ignoring the Web 2.0 trend and the spread of social media: look out, the tide is shifting and you're about to be left behind. The rise of social media didn't happen overnight, the power of the internet to unite people, the ubiquity of broadband, the rise of Gen Y, the development of new technologies for socializing on the web - all of these things and more have led to the rise of social media. And this new force is affecting change in the way that companies do business - now and for many years to come.

Enterprise Adoption of Web 2.0: It's Happening - ReadWriteWeb

The lead of this article seems a tad harsh ... or overly hyped up. Nevertheless, the message is clear. Social media for business and, duh, consumers is quickly reaching maturity -- or as I prefer to say around the office and with clients, it's becoming "normal."

Other examples of formerly "techie" activities that have reached normality:
- Getting email on your wireless device; the Blackberry is normal while the iPhone is superbly normal
- Browser plug-ins; Flash is normal
- Digital photography on both ends - a digital camera and web-based sharing/printing apps; Flickr is normal
- GPS; does everybody give their TomTom a pet name? (Ours is "Jane")
- File sharing; iTunes is normal; with Miro and legal Napster, P2P is normal
- Blogs; the Huffington Post and Maya's Mom are normal

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MediaPost Publications - New MRM Chief Creative Reveals Plans For Agency - 06/02/2008

"In most big markets, MRMWW is already a full digital shop--the U.S., UK, Germany, China. If you look at Microsoft and Intel as examples, they already spend most of their marketing dollars on Web and digital efforts. As for the rest of our clients and surely for new business, I guess the question is not if, but when."

MediaPost Publications - New MRM Chief Creative Reveals Plans For Agency - 06/02/2008

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murketing » “Buying In”

"Buying In has vast social implications, far beyond the fields of marketing and branding. Most importantly, from the policy point of view, it obliterates our old paradigm of companies (the bad guys) corrupting our children (the innocents) via commercials. In this new world, media-literate young freely and willingly co-opt the brands, with most companies being clueless bystanders desperate to keep up. Consuming and interacting with products has become the new turf for the identity politics game, stirring the kind of savage feelings previously reserved for matters of ethnicity and class. I really don’t know if this is good news or bad news, but I can say, with certainty, that this book is a must-read."
– Po Bronson, author, Why Do I Love These People?

murketing » “Buying In”

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AP About to Release Results of Young Media Consumers Survey

The survey found that young consumers get their news in an irregular fashion, and generally have no ritual of news consumption, like reading the newspaper or watching the evening news every day. However, the survey also found that young people, in addition to facts and updates, wanted the news to be presented with context. “They wanted to find a path to the backstory,” said Kennedy. “And they wanted to find a path to what’s going to happen next.”

Other significant findings of the survey included the fact that most of the survey group shared news with each other, whether via text message, e-mail, or social networks, like Myspace and Facebook. Also, the survey found that 16 of the 18 participants got their news through e-mail, a medium which traditional media like newspapers rarely employ.

AP About to Release Results of Young Media Consumers Survey

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MediaPost Publications - C Suite Favors E Media, Study Finds 'Business Elite' Embracing Online - 05/13/2008

America's business elite, the so-called "C suite" that run our country's medium and large size businesses, are changing their personal media habits and spending much more of their time online. That may come as little surprise given the corresponding shifts that have taken place in the consumer population but the new findings, released this morning by global market research giant Ipsos, provides tangible proof of the impact digital media is having on one of the most difficult to reach, but most important media targets of all.

MediaPost Publications - C Suite Favors E Media, Study Finds 'Business Elite' Embracing Online - 05/13/2008

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Viral Marketing ... Gone Bubonic

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Viral marketing has gone positively bubonic. While this unconventional approach to building buzz online is nothing new, it has achieved full-blown plague status in the walk-up to the summer movie season."Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "The Dark Knight," and "Hancock" are just some of the movies employing viral marketing -- and the sheer volume is only part of why this strategy has becoming problematic.For the uninitiated, viral marketing involves hatching multiple interconnected Web sites that plug a movie by extending its story lines online. That in turn gets blogs and social networks linking in -- hence its viral nature.Gone are the days when marketing a movie online involved simply buying a URL like DarkKnight.com and uploading a trailer. Warner Bros. has launched more than 30 Web sites during the past year in support of the latest in the "Batman" franchise, a trail of virtual bread crumbs intended to sate fans until the July 18 release.Although the bulk of these campaigns play out on the Internet, they also frequently move offline, often in the form of wacky public events intended to amass die-hard enthusiasts. One "Knight" site provides clues pointing to screenings that were scheduled for Monday in 12 different cities.

Studios' viral marketing campaigns are vexing | Technology | Reuters

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Crowdsourcing is the Future of Marketing : Clickadvisor

What’s the future of advertising got to do with crowdsourcing? Well, Paul champions the idea that part of the future of advertising is crowdsourcing (using collaborative tools to generate insight to deliver real value) (Paul cites the Starbucks crowdsourcing platform as an example).

Crowdsourcing is the Future of Marketing : Clickadvisor

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Video Insider » Blog Archive » To Change Advertisers’ Digital Aptitude, We Need To Add The ‘How-To’

In the back of their minds, brand managers know they SHOULD be doing more digitally — we just haven’t consistently told them “HOW.” As an industry, we sell them brand sites and microsites that are great for educating and informing their consumers on the product, its functional attributes and even “send to a friend” viral potential. We capture registrations, provide promotional offers, and generally tell a deeper, richer story than TV or print can. But here’s one place where we really fall down. Often, for the sake of short-term revenue, we let our online media buyers and sellers suck what little budgets our brand marketers are devoting to digital into the same old banner-based, impression-based effective frequency models that, whether someone clicks through above 1% or not, purportedly work to drive the same positive brand health measures and purchase intent that commercials do in television-only online.

Video Insider » Blog Archive » To Change Advertisers’ Digital Aptitude, We Need To Add The ‘How-To’

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Nomads at last | Economist.com

Just as Sony's Walkman once planted the notion that music can be mobile, the BlackBerry by Research In Motion (RIM), a Canadian firm, has since 1999 made e-mail on the go seem normal. And just as the personal-computer era entered the mainstream only in the 1980s with Apple's commercialisation of the “graphical user interface”, the mobile era arguably began only last summer when the same firm launched the iPhone, with its radically new and user-friendly touch interface. As a result, Google, for instance, has received 50 times more web-search requests from iPhones this year than from any other mobile handset.

Nomads at last | Economist.com

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Web Could Run Out of Gas by 2010

Speaking at a Westminster eForum on web 2.0 this week in London, Jim Cicconi, vice president of legislative affairs for AT&T, warned the current systems that constitute the internet will not be able to cope with the increasing amounts of video and user-generated content being uploaded.

He said: "The surge in online content is at the centre of the most dramatic changes affecting the internet today. In three years' time, 20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire internet today."

Web Could Run Out of Gas by 2010

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