Conversational Media Marketing

A few months ago in a blog post about Google OpenSocial, Internet pioneer Dave Winer said, "Advertising will get more and more targeted until it disappears, because perfectly targeted advertising is just information."

A few days ago Blog Business Summit blogger Jason Preston echoed Dave's sentiments when he said, "One of the things about advertising on the internet is that it seems to blend more and more with marketing and with content. Good, relevant advertising is content."

Today CMSWire blogger Gerry McGovern said, "Google has become one of the most successful companies in the world by selling lots and lots of these 17 words of text that help us find what we are searching for. In a money-rich, time-poor economy, helping busy people complete their tasks is the new advertising."

What is it that each of these comments have in common?

Recently, AdAge editor, Jonah Bloom, sent a note to AdAge Power 150 members asking us to share our ideas about what we think would be the "single technology, site or application" most deserving of marketers’ attention in 2008 and why.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to get my name in print (:->), I submitted a comment, which was posted. However, part of it was left off. Just for the record, here's the full comment as it was sent:

Online video/TV is THE technology to watch in 08. There seems to be a seismic shift toward digital distribution of video content, more and more video sites are being created, and there is a small camera revolution going on (which includes webcams) that portends a continued rise in user-generated video content.

YouTube was just the beginning. Now, there’s ooVoo, seesmic, revver, Jumpcut… the list goes on and on. Oh, and FastCompany.TV that Scoble just inaugurated. Add to that the fact that people are scurrying to their computers in droves to watch television programs which, themselves, are being equipped to serve as television monitors. More than any other technology, including social networks, online video is it.

Note the sentence which says, "Add to that the fact that people are scurrying to their computers in droves to watch television programs which, themselves, are being equipped to serve as television monitors." Some bad sentence structure there... should have read something like, "Add to that the fact that people are scurrying to their computers to watch television programs on sites like Hulu, Netflix or DailyMotion." Anyway, you get the point.

Checked Facebook today, something I'm doing less and less (usually only when I get a friend invite), and saw this video...

There is truth to it. We social media types flit around like butterflies in a flower garden searching for nectar. We stick our proboscis down into the app du jour, take a nice, long drink, then wing our way over to the next.

It appears Facebook is the latest to litter the trail. We're currently enraptured with Twitter...or is it ? I forget. What's the app we're all excited about today?

The reports are in: Not one Super Bowl XLII advertiser sent viewers to any type of social media site. Not one. That's pitiful.

MediaPost blogger Joe Marchese had this to say in response...

Besides making Monday a miserable and unproductive work day, the Super Bowl is a great example of why no media buy can really ever be done in a vacuum. A few times during the big game, fans were prompted to visit MySpace.com to view and share the commercials they see during the game. The idea that is so intuitive, yet so hard to practice, is this: For today’s brands to get the most out of their traditional media buys, they must have a plan to extend those campaigns into social media.

I subscribe to the AAF SmartBrief daily email newsletter. In a special edition sent today included was this poll, which I'm guessing looks ahead to 2008 ad spending.

(Click to enlarge)

Things look promising for the online space, wouldn't you say?

BTW, I've not found this online yet, but, then again, I've not spent much time trying.

"Things go better with _________."

"You're in good hands with ___________."

"Don't squeeze the ____________."

"Is it live, or is it _______________."

"Every kiss begins with __________."

Did you get all five? If so, I'm guessing you're over 30, or else just watched a lot of television growing up. Those are all slogans that some copywriter on Madison Ave. got paid lots of money to compose. Trouble is, advertising slogans, taglines or brand "mantras," as Guy Kawasaki likes to call them, are going the way of the albatross.

You gotta love the Apple commercials where the Mac guy take stabs at Mr. PC. They're simple, humorous and effective. Trouble is, no matter how much I want to be Mac guy, that's just not who I am. I mean, look at the photo in the sidebar. E'nuf said.

So, which are you? PC or Mac?

Hat tip: On Money Making blog

Sometimes I look for topics about which to blog, and sometime topics look for me... or so it seems. This post fits the latter.

In doing my daily due diligence reading the 100+ RSS feeds to which I'm subscribed, not to mention the 1/2 dozen different daily email newsletters I receive, on three different occasions today I saw articles dealing with the concept of mixing editorial content and ads. In my book, that's an unpardonable sin.