originally uploaded by http://www.intersectionofonlineandoffline.com

Ok, I’ll admit it….I’m a little bit addicted to social networks. Using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ is an important part of my work, but it probably fair to say that over the course of a day I am exceeding what is needed to effectively get the job done. When you add the many different blogs and websites I check daily for great content and industry news, I am beginning to consume an amazing amount of media.

And then it becomes a default habit, something that can easily fill the day and lead you down endless clickable rabbit holes.

I’m sure I’m not alone. These days we’re consuming more media than anytime in history. Its accessible 24/7 and sometimes it seems that we are too. The lines between work and play have become so blurred that we tend to suffer an inevitable burnout.

This year I am totally rethinking how I consume media with the aim to improve my productivity and put some more space between work and play. The approach I am adopting is based on dedicated devices and apps for different functions:

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Popularity: 2%

Almost six out of ten consumers (59 per cent) have stopped engaging with four or more brands as a result of poorly targeted communications, according to research released today by Experian. The report, titled ‘The future of multichannel marketing: marketer and consumer perspectives,’ shines a spotlight on disconnects that exist between marketers and consumers and highlights the opportunities available to marketers to minimise the impact of poorly targeted communications.

The Experian figures show that, as a result of poorly-targeted communications, eight per cent of consumers have stopped engaging with 20 or more brands. A further 27 per cent of Australians have gone as far as creating a separate email address to receive this information to avoid other email accounts from being inundated.

However, marketers are also making strides to change traditional marketing practices demonstrated by a significant 89 per cent of marketers now using a customer segmentation strategy.  In addition, 69 per cent are becoming more selective about the channels they use to engage with customers.  A key challenge identified by half (50 per cent) of Australian marketers lies in cutting through the white-noise to get messages through to the consumer.

It’s clear that many marketers are investing in tools to get the right message to the right audiences at the right time, yet the findings suggest that they may not be applying this strategic segmentation across all marketing disciplines, particularly among newer channels such as social media.

The evolution of social media

The findings show that consumers are least trusting of newer marketing channels such as social media, SMS and LinkedIn for direct communication with brands.  Almost three in 10 (29 per cent) consumers ranked social media as among the three marketing channels they trusted least when receiving information about a brand.  While just four per cent said it was the channel they trusted most.

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Tomorrow I am speaking at the Digital Culture Public Sphere consultation run by Senator Kate Lundy and Minister Simon Crean in order to form a collaborative submission on digital culture in Australia to the National Cultural Policy consultation.

I NEED YOUR HELP.

I’m covering “The future of media culture creation in a digital world” but the Public Sphere wiki hasn’t had many contributions. Here’s you chance to contribute to a 10 year strategy for Australian digital culture, and the broader national cultural agenda.

There’s plenty of ways you can get involved via the Wiki, but for expediency and to help me easily deliver your ideas could you please either write a comment here or via Twitter using the hashtag #publicspheremedia so I can collate.

This is fairly urgent. I will be presenting the collated ideas at about 12.30pm tomorrow (6 Oct 2011).

Ideas to address include:

• How do you imagine the sector could look in the future? How could Australia excel? What would a 10 year plan look like?

• What are some tangible ways we could measure progress in this area?

• Ideas to achieve the vision for Australia.

• Add your thoughts and references for where this sector is going, emerging business models, opportunities for commercialisation

• Any additional information you think might be useful, including case studies, success stories, research papers.

• Leading case studies from the sector to help contextualise Australian innovation in this area

GO FOR IT.

Popularity: 3%

For the last 20 years I have been glued to SBS during July watching their coverage of my favourite sporting event, le Tour de France.

In recent years our multicultural broadcaster has upped the ante by introducing live coverage of the race, initially on key stages and now every night.

This year they’ve taken it a significant step further again. Not only can you watch the Tour live every night from 10.30pm (AEST), or 10pm if you want some recaps and Gabriel Gate’s food segment, but now you can follow the race via the SBS Tour de France website, Tour Tracker or iPad (update: plus Android and LG connected TV) apps with latest stats and high resolution streaming video. It is wonderful.

But wait there’s more…..

You can also follow the SBS Tour coverage via Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

Rather than detract from the audience’s attention to the TV screen these various options enhance the overall experience. We can watch the SBS coverage anywhere (no audio), get some real-time insight from various experts and commentators and have bit of fun comparing your stage picks versus the experts.

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via media release

Will Australians cut the cable?

Research released today by Free TV Australia revealed that one in four pay TV subscribers are likely to cancel or downgrade their pay TV subscription because of the increased choice offered by the new free-to-air channels.

The national survey, conducted by Jigsaw Strategic Research last month, was part of a broader quantitative study of more than 1,500 digital TV viewers that explored consumers’ attitudes towards the recently launched free-to-air channels (ie. 7TWO, GO!, ONE, 7MATE and GEM as well as ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBSHD, SBSTwo).

The study found that:

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Popularity: unranked

There is a lot of conjecture about Internet Television, how we will consume it and how it will affect us. This entertaining presentation was given at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco in November 2010 to debunk some of the myths (sorry, I have somehow forgotten who did this presentation).

Internet TV will change viewing habits forever

You know you’re old if…

• You think you’ll need a box to watch Internet TV
• You think you’ll need apps to watch Internet TV
• If you want to watch TV on your TV
• If you want to watch TV with other people
• If you watch more than 36 hours of TV per week (in which case it’s ambient, running in the background most of the time rather than being content that you elect to view when you wish)
• You think that Internet TV is “amateur hour” and that no web originals are professional

Viewing habits have changed remarkably in recent generations. Internet TV will result in an even more dramatic shift in media consumption.

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Generation Z are true digital natives

Two years ago I explained “Why my kids will be the death of traditional media” whilst I watched my sons effortlessly move between their armoury of digital playthings.

Two years later and they are even more web savvy and connected. My eight year-old now blogs from his Posterous site, displaying the latest videos he shot on a Flip Camera, edited himself on iMovie and posted to YouTube. He creates his own video games using Sploder and embeds them into his blog, which in less than a month has attracted thousands of views.

His friends are also digital natives who all chat online after school and rarely watch free-to-air TV. They download music and apps to their iPods and never turn on the radio.

Which brings me to a new study by Habbo Hotel, the world’s largest virtual community for teens, into Generation Z and their expectations for the future digital economy. The survey of more than 49,000 Australian children aged 11-18 found that the majority (55%) of respondents believe that the digital world will make traditional printed books, newspapers and magazines extinct, whilst, only 38% disagree.

Here are the major findings:

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Popularity: unranked

Google TV is on the way and could be one of the biggest interruptions to traditional media ever. Its all about total media convergence. The best of the web, TV and social networking all through the dominant household screen. It’ll be interesting to see how Google TV catches on and whether the big players in Australian media will be able to thwart its growth.

This first video is an introduction to Google TV while the second video demonstrates apps for Google TV.

Game changer? Quite possibly.

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Are we heading towards total media convergence?

I was showing someone through the new Wired Magazine iPad application yesterday and while she was marveling at the animations, video, audio and general interactivity she made the comment, “Its not really a magazine anymore.”

And in a way she’s right. It seems that with increasing broadband speeds and new media delivery devices such as smart phones and tablet computers that host an array of apps, we are heading towards total media convergence.

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Popularity: 4%

During February 2010, more than 9,200 participants joined ‘FebuSave’, a month-long national savings campaign created by ANZ to encourage Australian women to develop a regular savings habit. It was part of an innovative social media campaign that delivered some impressive results.

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDY
Client: ANZ Customer Segmentation
Campaign: FebuSave
Time Period: Mid December 2009 – Mid March 2010

ANZ launched a new nationwide campaign to encourage women to develop a regular savings habit following research that found 53% of women do not save money on a regular basis.

Research commissioned by ANZ into the savings habits of women found:
• One in five women surveyed said they typically spend all their pay packet or regularly dip into their savings for basic living expenses.
• More than half (58%) have less than $5,000 in savings and 33% less than $1,000.
• 51% of women would last less than three months on their current savings if they lost their job and still had to pay their usual bills.

In an effort to raise awareness of these issues in the community and encourage Australian women to set financial goals and take action towards achieving them, ANZ created ‘FebuSave’ – a month-long savings initiative that ran from 1st to 28th February 2010.

At the end of the month, FebuSave participants reported back on how they performed against their savings goal, with three ‘FebuSave’ participants being rewarded with $5,000 in an ANZ savings account of their choice.

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Popularity: 2%