The rise and rise of micro-media

24Nov08

I am a big fan of Al and Laura Ries’ dissection of the marketing world. I also tend to agree with their theory of divergence (despite maybe making the wrong call on the iPhone) which says that new products and channels will continually splinter away from their ancestors and evolve.

There is probably no better place to explore the divergence theory than in the media. We are constantly being told that traditional media is dying and that new media is on the rise. But while that is somewhat true, what isn’t highlighted enough is that “new media” consists of a plethora of options and delivery systems rather than one or two all powerful mediums.

The truth is that we may never see a handful of dominant mediums again. What we are now witnessing is the rise and rise of micro-media.

Media has been diverging for some time now. Initially it took the form of specialist magazines and publications as opposed to generalist titles. Radio similarly became more narrow through demographic targeting, then splintering into digital radio, while Television began to divide with the advent of pay or cable TV. Suddenly TV viewers and radio listeners were able to access 50 or 100 channels rather than the original three. It was only inevitable that eventually the 3 main TV players would lose influence and audience as more options became available.

In the early 21st Century, however, media divergence has accelerated due to the affordable access to technology. We suddenly live in a world where everyone owns a media channel, and its this world which has traditional media owners quaking in their boots. The old rules no longer apply.

Consider this from Seth Godin in his take on the problems at the once venerable New York Times:

“All the News That’s Fit to Print” is the heart of the problem. It was never that, of course. It was “All the News That Fits.” The entire mindset of (every) newspaper has been driven by the cost of paper, the finite nature of paper, the cost of delivery and the cycle of a daily paper. You run enough articles to fit as many ads as you can sell.These are artifacts of a different age, one that today’s consumer doesn’t care a whit about…..

When you think about your business, realize that it is a combination of assets and constraints. The Times understood both, but suddenly, the constraints changed. Now, it’s possible for a single individual with a Typepad account to reach more people than almost any newspaper in the country can. Loosen one constraint and the game changes. That leaves you with the assets, for a while anyway.

Godin knows what he is talking about. His Typepad blog is one of the world’s most popular, enabling him to build a substantial international audience who buy his books or follow his other entrepreneurial endeavours. His daily audience is much larger than many newspapers and its all produced using his time, thoughts and a $20 per month Typepad account.

Earlier this year I posed the question What is Media in 2008 and came to the same conclusion. We are all becoming media producers, just that some are more effective than others.

Consider these examples:

• The tech-savvy and thoroughly modern Fast Company magazine saw the writing on the wall and launched headlong into micro-media delivery by creating FastCompanyTV with the WorkFastTV and ScobleizerTV spin-offs. Not only have they used media divergence cleverly but they also diverged their online brands to ensure sub-category and demographic success. In doing so, Fast Company has generated new income streams and kept their flagship publication and brand alive and relevant.

• Meanwhile in New Jersey, one man has shaken up the wine industry by creating his own micro-media channel doing Vodcasts from his office. Gary Vaynerchuk transformed his family’s small suburban wine store, The Wine Library into a national phenomenon in the United States with the popularity of his WineLibraryTV. Debuting in February 2006, WineLibraryTV is now broadcast every weekday with a following of around 80,000 viewers. In my local region that would have given him the 7th highest ratings show on free-to-air television last week. And its produced from his office with the help of one camera guy. Correspondingly his shop sales have exploded from $4m to $50+million annually in just a few years.

• DailyCandy, a free daily e-mail newsletter and website, is an insider’s guide to what’s hot, new, and undiscovered — from fashion and style to gadgets and travel. It was born out of an ex-journalist’s frustration with old-media lead times and the need for more immediate and relevant information. It is like getting an e-mail from your clever, unpredictable, and totally in-the-know best friend. DailyCandy now publishes thirteen daily editions, via e-mail and eight weekly editions. Kids Everywhere (for busy and hip parents) is published on Thursday; local Kids editions are published on Monday in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago; DailyCandy Travel is published on Wednesday; DailyCandy Deals (which features special sales and promotions) comes out on Tuesday. This micro-media upstart grew so popular and was attracting so much advertising that it sold in August 2008 for US$125 million. Please note that rather than let Daily Candy grow to be a one-size-fits-all online publication, they continued to let it diverge into specialist publications.

• The growth of citizen journalism is allowing burgeoning social media sites deliver localised news, like Norg, or demographic specific content, like SNOBS.

• On a smaller scale, Tim Jackson has continued to build the brand and community for Masi Bicycles through thoughtful and friendly regular posts on his MasiGuy blog. In recent times Tim has evolved his blog to become a pictorial account of his travels, news and products rather than writing constantly. He has done this simply by taking photos with his iPhone and posting them straight to his blogsite. What’s more its intimate and instantaneous. Tim’s iPhone has become a media production vehicle as well as delivery device.

How micro can we go?

Pretty small it seems. With YouTube, Vimeo or Flikr we can deliver instant video to the world (or the part of the world who cares about what you have to say). Blogs allow us to express our opinions or market our businesses quickly and inexpensively. SlideRocket and Slideshare allow us to create impressive presentations that can be passed around the internet.

I recently viewed an episode of Stillgherrian Live, a weekly (Thursday night 9.30pm Aust. Eastern) live web broadcast by a Sydney-based “uber-geek”. Produced and streamed from an Apple Laptop in his lounge room, Stillgherrian Live may be an acquired taste, but it could also be a pointer to the future of broadcasting. Viewers are able to comment in real time via U-StreamTV, conversing both with Stillgherrian and each other. It can be very amusing and highly interactive and usually culminates with the results of live online poll. How long before we see prime time TV shows interacting with audience in this way?

Then there is micro-blogging. The likes of Twitter and Plurk allow us to build community and share thoughts, ideas and messages with people from around the world. You can easily build an audience of thousands of “followers” who may be interested in what you have to say or offer and carefully interact with them…all in 140 character messages.

The immediacy and viral capability of Twitter and Plurk means that for many users these mediums can deliver news quicker than traditional media. Product announcements, world events and scandals can now break and spread on micro-blogging platforms within seconds, soon to be dissected by an international online community.

Don’t think Twitter is a viable media for your business or brand? Well Zappos shoes does. They have been using Twitter with great effect, from the CEO down. Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh has over 20,000 followers on Twitter and has committed the company to the use of social media channels.

Australia’s largest telecommunications firm does too. Telstra recently started using Twitter to follow conversations, solve issues and build community for their BigPond brand.

Meanwhile, both the Australian Prime Minister and Opposition Leader has recently begun using Twitter as part of their communications mix.

On a personal level, Twitter has helped my agency win new business and generate PR. Its definitely a micro-media platform that is working for us.

No wonder traditional media are nervous and media stock prices are at all time lows. Advertising Age recently reported:

Over the next six months, not only will ad spending be down, but the feeling among advertisers and their agencies toward media such as broadcast TV, national newspapers and magazines is growing more pessimistic. The dreary outlook is courtesy of the new Advertiser Optimism Report by Advertiser Perceptions.

But while the outlook is somewhat bleak for the aforementioned ad media, others like online, cable TV and mobile are likely to attract more of marketers’ money.

The report shows a large percentage of the advertisers polled (68%) said they plan to increase their ad spending online. Still, that number is down four points from 72% six months ago. The numbers were also slightly down for cable TV (27% vs. 28%) and mobile (51% vs. 53%) over that same period but remained on the “optimistic” side of the scale.

Such sentiment is not merely a result of the economic downturn, but a realisation that diverging media channels have the collective ascendancy. No longer will we be able to rely on one-size-fits all traditional broadcast media to market our wares, we must increasingly look to micro-media options as the future of media.

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