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This blogsite has never existed as a money spinner. Sure, I sometimes promote the activities of my various businesses and that can be beneficial, but I have never tried or expected to make a dollar from publishing blog posts.

I’m also a big advocate of inbound marketing and tend to believe the rather funny recent study that found its more likely your will survive a plane crash or win the lottery than click a banner ad. That’s because we don’t go to our favourite websites to look at ads, we go for what that site offers; information, advice, entertainment etc. And its very rare that we are actually served up advertisements that are relevant to us.

Advertisements are pointless and annoying unless they are actually relevant and of service to readers. So that’s why I haven’t included any ads on Media Hunter or even on Urban Insider….until now.

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Popularity: 3%

social media monetization

There seems to be a lot of action this year around finally monetizing the communities and traffic that have grown around major social media networks. From day one, many have wondered where the revenue would come from amongst all the wonderful free services and networks we enjoy online. In 2011 it appears we’ll find out.

The biggest social platform of all, Facebook, has never been in a rush to monetize, preferring to build the base, grow the connections and steadily accumulate data on its members. Sure, over the last few years they have steadily added advertising which is increasingly targeted due to your Facebook “Likes” and activity. Now Facebook have announced that they are jumping on the group buying bandwagon with Facebook Deals. We heard at Social Media Club Sydney this week that Facebook Deals will be launching in Australia in the 2nd quarter of 2011. I believe you’ll start to see a lot more revenue streams appearing on Facebook soon.

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…unless you want to learn some extremely innovative ways to reinvent your marketing.

Dentsu is a Japanese advertising agency that has become one of the largest and most successful in the world. That in itself was news to me. But what was more interesting is how Dentsu have pioneered fascinating cross-communication strategies that resonate strongly in the fragmenting world of modern media and digital ubiquity.It’s all been revealed in a new book called The Dentsu Way by Kotaro Sugyama and Tim Andree.

What got my attention in The Dentsu Way is how this agency doesn’t follow the old reach and frequency, interruption model of advertising, but aims to draw consumers out on their own accord. They try to deliver information with which consumers want to be come involved. It has a lot of similarities with inbound marketing in that regard.

My headline “Do not read this book” is a nod to a famous campaign Dentsu did for a manga publication where their late night TV ads pleaded with viewers not to search for the new title on the internet. Of course everyone then did search and slowly a cat and mouse game played out rewarding those who dug deepest. These fans then spread the word and the buzz and subsequent sales went crazy.

The core of the book explains Dentsu’s Cross-Communication theory and then shows case studies and how you can design your own Cross-Switch strategy. It balances creativity with a data-intensive approach, something that once again should appeal to modern digital agencies.

The Dentsu Way really is a fascinating read and makes a good argument for the merging of traditional advertising agencies with digital (as opposed to the current either or approach) so that a truly integrated approach can run through a campaign.

So whatever you do, don’t buy this book…..I’d rather keep these ideas for myself.

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Foursquare for Beer

A few years back I was involved in launching a new brewery and it’s initial beer brands. I had dozens of ambitious ideas about how to do something cool and original but after a while we realised the client had become risk averse and budget deficient. Most of the ideas just fermented, but never bubbled over into reality.

Today, I’ve come across a beer campaign that I wish I was part of. Its great and utilises all of the elements I’d love to have included in our efforts.

Sydney agency Droga5 recently launched a multi-platform strategic rebranding campaign for Cascade Brewery. It includes a quirky TV ad, slightly reminiscent of the one’s I have long admired in the USA for the New Belgium Brewery, an excellent new website and, best of all, an amazingly useful iPhone app.

Cascade Brewer’s Nose, is the quintessential beer-lovers free iPhone app, featuring tasting notes on over 500 Australian and international brews compiled by Tasmanian chef Rodney Dunn of the Agrarian Kitchen.

The application uses GPS technology to help beer-lovers search for their favourite stores, pubs and bars that stock Cascade as well as helping you keep tally of the brews that you’ve tried to date.

It’s like Foursquare for beer. Friends with the app can check out each others beer tallies on Facebook.

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What happens when Don Draper and his misogynistic, philandering Mad Men drink too much whiskey before creative meetings? They make advertising that shocks us now, but was apparently a sign of the times back then. Clearly most of these weren’t written by Peggy Olsen.

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This week will be a conference-heavy one for me with plenty of focus on the future.

I’ll be attending the Australasian Media and Broadcasting Congress in Sydney and sitting on two panels.

Panel 1 is to discuss Where is advertising heading? We’ll be looking at what the emergence of new platforms and players means for advertising spends on traditional media, questioning whether brands will continue to advertise en masse and even looking at whether technology such as 3D TV is the future for advertising.

Panel 2 probably has a lot of similar themes for me as we look at Strategies for successfully transitioning to a broadband economy. We’ll discuss what media companies need to do to survive in the changing technological environment, using the online channel to develop content and advertising products that cater to the on-demand media consumer and how media companies will generate revenue online.

The rest of the conference topics focus heavily on the digital age so its going to be fascinating to see what the rest of the industry is thinking.

The Australasian Media and Broadcasting Congress is on 20-22 July 2010 at the Swissotel, Sydney.

Popularity: 7%

In the past five years social media has snowballed to become a dominant force in media and marketing. Here in Australia we now spend more time online,  17.6 hours per week , than with any other media. Astoundingly, Australia leads the world in social media consumption averaging 6 hrs 52mins per person per month.

advertising must adapt to the new social media environment

So it is fair to say that social media is now having a significant impact on how people receive information and how they consume marketing.

Social media finally brings “people” into the marketing equation. Its possible to actually develop real relationships with consumers rather than just broadcast messages to them.

Bob MacDonald, CEO of Procter & Gamble, one of the world’s leading advertisers recently said,

What I would like to have is a one-on-one relationship with seven billion people in the world and be able to customize offerings for those seven billion people. Digital allows that relationship.

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Popularity: 3%

Next month I am going to be a panelist at the 5th Annual Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress in Sydney as media leaders discuss the industry and its future directions and I really need your help.

Is 3D the future of advertising?

One panel I am really looking forward to is titled The Future of Advertising. I’ll be discussing the big issues with Adam Good from Clemenger, Paddy Douneen from BMF, Marty O’Halloran from DDB Australia & New Zealand, John Sintras from Starcom Worldwide, Matt Whittingham from SingTel Optus and Paul Fisher from IAB Australia.

The initial question coming my way is based on a statement by Oscar-winning producer Jon Landau at the Cannes International Advertising Festival:

“3D is going to be the future of advertising”

Now I have been rather unexcited by the whole 3D thing and have my own opinions about it, but maybe I am way off base. So I’d really like to know what you think. Is 3D going to be the future of advertising? Is it just a fad, hyped by a desperate industry or is it groundbreaking technology that is going to make us love TV all over again and lap up the exciting advertisements that will be leaping off the screen?

I’d love to hear from people within the media and advertising industries. I’d also appreciate feedback from people who have invested in 3D televisions to understand their experiences so far.

All feedback is very welcome. I will compile the answers as part of my response to what I hope becomes a very lively debate at the Media & Broadcasting Congress.

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Internet advertising has overtaken press in USA

A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report issued yesterday in the USA claims that the internet is poised to overtake newspapers as the second largest U.S. advertising medium by revenue behind television.

This is a significant moment in advertising as traditional media have steadily been overtaken by the Internet in less than 20 years. How long until Internet advertising rolls past Television? And here in Australia, how long until the Internet becomes the number two advertising medium?

Here is the story in full from The Australian….

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Popularity: 8%

Is traditional media and advertising reaching the end of the creative line? In an increasingly cluttered media landscape it seems that nostalgia is being seen as the way to cut through and grasp our remaining collective attention.

Radio has long used the “formative years” approach to appeal to different demographics. This means playing music that was new during the teenage years of the desired audience. The result has been a plethora of classic hits and golden oldies formats. Read the rest of this entry »

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