A few years ago it occurred me that digital media had enabled transition for marketers that allowed them to become their own media outlets, to engage their audience directly and bypass the traditional media outlets. I have subsequently posted extensively on the subject here on Media Hunter.

So naturally I am thrilled when venerable industry watchers like AdAge concur with this theory.

Recently AdAge editor Jonah Bloom gave a speech saying

the marketer has become the media owner…the job of the agency is going to morph into bringing their expertise to bear to help marketers build channels that connect them with potential customers and continually reward the customers who come back with new valuable information.

I couldn’t agree more. A new age of marketing is upon us. You can watch the short video with Jonah Bloom’ speech here.

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I just came across this excellent piece in AdAge explaining how digital agencies should be the new advertising leaders due to their understanding of technology, speed of iteration and technology. It was written by Jacques-Herve Roubert.

Over the past 18 months, a great debate has consumed our industry: Are digital agencies poised to sit at the head of the advertising table? Depending on whom you ask and what you read, the answer seems to flip flop — with a majority of people still having reservations and making claims that digital agencies aren’t ready to lead.

So why does the debate continue? Does offline or online really matter to an oblivious consumer who’s only interested in “no-line” communications? Are we spending too much time focusing on who should lead and not enough asking: What’s next?

Ana Andjelic’s DigitalNext post, provocatively titled “Why Digital Agencies Aren’t Ready to Lead,” mentions several reasons why digital agencies aren’t ready to lead, one of which was their lack of experience in the business (as compared with the “decades of experience” that traditional agencies are known for). I’m sure there are instances where decades of experience can directly translate into success, but there are certainly instances (uh, Lehman Brothers?) where deep roots had no bearing on their ability to produce — and produce well. Furthermore, a certain percentage of the individuals now working and thriving in digital agencies came from traditional agencies.

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The future of successful marketing is relevance.

We now live in an age where consumers have developed selective hearing as a defense mechanism against being inundated by thousands of marketing messages every day. Your potential customers are time-shifting, downloading and channel surfing. Most of them research purchases online and many of them rely on the recommendations of those they respect in their social networks.

Interruption marketing is under threat. Customers are in control. You best give them what they’re looking for.

This warning extends to online marketers too.

Ranking highly in search (either organic or paid) isn’t good enough if you had to “game” the system to get there. Link-baiting and link farming often results in disappointment for the consumer who has wasted time visiting a site that doesn’t really address their needs, or lured them there under false pretenses.

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Posted by Matthew Creamer at Adage.com

Internet Now Commands 24% of Ad Spending to TV’s 22%

In what’s believed to be a first for a major ad market, internet advertising has overtaken TV ad spending in the U.K.

Web advertising now accounts for almost 24% of ad spending in the U.K., compared to TV, which has a 22% share. These figures come from a biannual report from Internet Advertising Bureau in the U.K. and were first reported by Reuters.

But before you get too excited, consider that the U.K. TV market is a highly restricted one with a massive player that doesn’t take ads (BBC) and one that’s been particularly battered during the recession. On top of that, online spending in the U.K. has been anything but immune to the recession, with its torrid rates of growth seen as recently as early 2008 falling off dramatically.

The new order is helped by the abundance of cheap computing technology and high broadband penetration in the U.K. And it doesn’t particularly come as a surprise when you consider that the TV market is so beat up that advertisers are increasingly hanging their hopes on a relaxation of rules barring product placement in programming.

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So its a year since the big crash of 2008. For many businesses its been a year of pain, staff cut-backs, revised budgets and knife-edge survival.

Last year, as it became apparent that the economy was about to go down the toilet, I opined that we were experiencing a turning point in media and marketing history. Old media models were under threat, new media was on the rise. Media consumption habits were changing rapidly and savvy marketers were aware of this. I suggested that the looming economic crisis would only hasten these changes.

Now, as the world lurches out of the worst of the downturn it appears significant change has taken place and the ones who are struggling to cope are those sticking to their old methods.

Many businesses have already charted a new course in the new economy, but for those just beginning to think about their marketing plans here are 7 new marketing rules for the recovery economy:

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From David James in BRW Magazine 3-9 September 2009

Managers rely heavily on advertising to make sales – but what if advertising fails to keep up with audiences.

A research note written in July by Matthew Robson, 15, for the investment bank Morgan Stanley in London has caused a stir among fund managers trying to assess the future of the media.

The note, described by the back as “one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights we have seen”, alluded to a deep problem in the media business that has yet to be solved.

Advertising, the main revenue source of most forms of commercial media, is losing its credibility and means of access.

Robson opined that even in an online environment, teenagers find advertising “extremely annoying and pointless”.

Viewed as a product, advertising has demonstrated almost no innovation for decades. An advertisement in a newspaper or on television is little different to an ad of 50 years ago and online equivalents are mainly old-media techniques migrated into the digital environment. Ads on websites, for example, are typically electronic versions of those of either print of television. The technology may be more sophisticated but the basic structure and tactics have altered little.

The one exception is the introduction of am online search capability, probably the only seminal change since the Second World War. This favours new media and has changed the economics of advertising.

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Did you realise that the Internet is now the most consumed media in Australia?

According to the 2009 Nielsen Annual Internet and Technology Report the average Australian spends 16.1 hours per week online. This is compared to TV at 12.0 hours per week, Radio at 8.8 hours, Video at 5.4 hours, Online radio at 4.6 hours, PC video at 4.6 hours, mobile at 3.7 hours, newspaper at 2.8 hours and magazines at 2 hours.

Hold on….Australians spend more time online than consuming TV & Newspaper combined? More time online than Radio, Newspaper and Magazines combined?

So the big question for business is: are your marketing resources being allocated to the right media?

Why does the average business automatically resort to TV / Radio/ Press when devising a marketing campaign?

Of course there are issues of target markets, cost-effectiveness and clutter with all media decisions, but I am alarmed by the number of businesses still marketing like it was 1999.

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Writing this blog started as a tentative step into social media over two years ago. The initial site content was very localised and had narrow appeal. It soon evolved to look at Australian, then international media and marketing issues. As I have delved deeper into digital media, the site has come to reflect those interests too.

What started as a bit of a hobby has become an important part of my business and social media life. I spend a lot of time looking for relevant information that hopefully will appeal to visitors and am constantly thinking about my next post.

And its been worth every minute because I have learned so much from managing this blog. Ideas developed here go into my business and help my customers later on.

So its rewarding to discover that something that I spend so much time on is appreciated.

Invesp Consulting in the USA have compiled a list of the world’s top 100 advertising blogs and I’m proud to say that Media Hunter is on the list at 95th. Its also ranked 60th for the number of pages indexed by Google, and 44th for Alexa traffic, which shows that its a pretty busy little site.

BUT the most satisfying result in these rankings was that Media Hunter is ranked 2nd in Advertising world for the number of pages per visit. Apparently the average visitor to this blog goes to 6.7 pages each visit.

Wow! Its great to know that people don’t mind reading this stuff and are keen to read more.

Thank you for investing your time in visiting Media Hunter, it makes it all worthwhile.

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Over at GetSticky I have just posted Advertisers now in charge. It discusses how the changing media landscape and the rise of Inbound Marketing now allows advertisers to become cost-effective marketers and be less reliant on the traditional media to generate audiences for them to reach. Inbound marketing is a serious paradigm shift for business owners and marketers who can now attract relevant, motivated consumers to them when they are ready to purchase.

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Respected blogger and author Rohit Bhargava has written a great piece summing up the success of the Best Job in the World campaign run by Queensland Tourism.

The campaign cleaned up at Cannes Advertising Festival, taking home an unprecedented 3 categories. Rohit says, “a big part of the reason for the amazing success of this campaign was not what they were marketing, but how they used social media to do it.”

Here are the six lessons Rohit identified from the Best Job in the World Campaign:

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