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.

Social media steps out of the echo chamber

I only have time to attend a handful of conferences each year. Its often difficult to determine which are the best conferences to attend. You have to balance up the cost and the potential information reward for each conference.

Social media conferences are even harder to pick. Over the last 3 years I have attended quite a few social media conferences and events but the lingering impression I often have after each event is that the conference was preaching to the converted. Its been an increasing dilemma in the social media world….there are those who “get it” and those that don’t (yet). At most events I’ve attended the audience already “get it”.

Of course its great to have enthusiastic participants at your social media event, but it’d be a lot more valuable to the noise extended beyond the social media echo chamber to reach the people we’d really love to see “joining the conversation”…Ie leading corporate marketers.

That’s why I’m excited to be attending the iStrategy 2010 conference in Sydney in November. Here’s a social media conference that is very deliberately addressing marketing professionals from leading Australian organisations with the aim of “Bridging the gap in Social Media Marketing”.

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Get noticed in the web industry

I just came across a great piece in Smashing Magazine by Christian Heilman titled Making your mark on the web is easier than you think. There is some excellent advice in here for people looking to get noticed, make a start in the industry or win a job. In fact it has some parallels with my thoughts on getting a job in the media and marketing industry.

Here are the main points, but please check out the full article for more details.

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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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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.

A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• The average YouTube user spends 15 minutes a day on the website, compared with 5 hours that the average TV viewer spends in front of the box. Source: The Economist

• Over 8 million tablet computers are expected to be sold in 2010. Source: The Economist

• The iPhone App Store boasts 85,000 applications and a total of more than 2 billion downloads. Source: The Economist

• Fewer than 1% of LinkedIn’s 50 million members worldwide actually pay for the service, compared with around 10% of Viadeo’s and 18% of Xing’s.  Source: The Economist

• Apple accounts for 69% of online music sales – and 35% of all music sales (more than Wal-mart) – in America. Source: The Economist

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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For decades governments of western nations have granted permission for media licenses but also regulated the general nature of media content, deciding what can and can’t be offered to the public.

The Internet has been the one form of media that seemed to escape regulation. The ease of content creation and distribution online has allowed the Internet to become the most lawless media, with our own common sense and decency being the main filters.

Clearly this unregulated and uncensored media has been a concern to governments around the world. Strict nations, such as Iran and China, with a history of cracking down on free speech have imposed strong filters to prevent their people from accessing material not deemed acceptable, but recently it seems that countries usually associated with free speech are now getting into the act.

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Social media is like golf

Last night at the New Institute meeting in Newcastle we had a great discussion about the benefits of social media in various walks of life. During the Q&A session at the end of the night came some questions about how people conduct themselves online and the potential risks.

The discussion prompted me to compare social media to golf.

My father has been a passionate golfer most of his life and has begun many a business deal on the golf course. He has told me repeatedly that golf provides a great insight into a person’s character. On the golf-course a person’s manners, etiquette, honesty and temperament are quickly revealed. He says the way a potential business partner conducts himself in a round of golf gives him an idea of how they will conduct themselves in business, and whether he wants to do business with them.

The same can be said about social media. The way people conduct themselves online provides a great insight into the person.

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A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• Two-thirds of Chinese households with internet connections have bought an everyday item online in the past 6 months. Source: The Economist

• Five months after it was launched, users of Blippy – a Twitter-like service that broadcasts what people buy – share $1.5 million in transactions every week. Source: Washington Post

• The data management industry is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion and growing at almost 10% a year, roughly twice as fast as the software business as a whole. Source: The Economist

• Users share more than 25 billion pieces of information with Facebook each month. Source: Time

• Two-thirds of Chinese households with internet connections have bought an everyday item online in the past 6 months. Source: The Economist