It’s not just Internet Advertising that is Failing – the World has Fundamentally Changed
Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet – by Eric Clemons on March 22, 2009
Couldn’t agree more Eric. This is my theory.
Advertising is the creation of the 20th century Mass economy – Mass Production – Mass Media – Mass Marketing.
In this economy:
- Content was scarce
- Distribution was controlled
- Consumer attention was abundant
Advertising works great in this economy because consumers lacked choice.
Flash forward to the 21st century where the Mass economy doesn’t exist any more. It’s more like the fragmentation or social economy.
In this economy:
- Content is abundant and free
- Distribution is totally open
- Consumer attention is scarce (severely overloaded)
- Social engagement is the new Content
Advertising doesn’t work in this economy because consumers have limitless choice. Who’s going to choose advertising? Give a user a TiVo and what do they do? Consumers are also spending proportionally more time (attention) in social engagement rather than content consumption.
Eric is right we need to start exploring some new models. I think those models will be based on consumer intent, social influence and community engagement.
We’ve written extensively about this is years past.
Read MoreMedia is actually a triathlon – consume, produce, share – My TV has no Mouse
Gin, Television, and Social Surplus
This is something that people in the media world don’t understand. Media in the 20th century was run as a single race–consumption. How much can we produce? How much can you consume? Can we produce more and you’ll consume more? And the answer to that question has generally been yes. But media is actually a triathlon, it ‘s three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share.
Although experiencing this via a liner video is somewhat ironic, you must stop what you’re doing right now and watch this video.
From now on, that’s what I’m going to tell them: We’re looking for the mouse. We’re going to look at every place that a reader or a listener or a viewer or a user has been locked out, has been served up passive or a fixed or a canned experience, and ask ourselves, “If we carve out a little bit of the cognitive surplus and deploy it here, could we make a good thing happen?” And I’m betting the answer is yes.
Wow, I’ve been writing about consumer attention scarcity up here the past few years. Clay talks about this concept of cognitive surplus which at the end of the day is reallocated attention from pure consumption to a consume, produce, and share model.
Just like in the Matrix where there is no spoon, in the mass media matrix there is no mouse.
Technorati Tags: Attention, Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky, cognitive surplus, Media 2.0, mouse, TV
Authentic Influence
This is the new New Media… Social Media = Authentic Social Engagement = Authentic Influence.
Marketers and brands wanna market here? Well Advertising campaigns need to shift to Socializing campaigns. Advertising Agencies need to evolve to Socializing Agencies. Marketing mix needs to shift from content sponsored broadcast channels to implicit/ explicit social streams. Time with media has already shifted for 70 million Gen Yers. Billions of marking dollars will follow this behavioral shift over the next 10 years. We’ve seen this shift happen before!
Here’s where we’re heading…..
Sweet!
Technorati Tags: Authentic Influence, Community, Conversation, Social Media
Read MoreMike Arrington Facebook Spokesman for Blockbuster and Cloverfield
I noticed Mike Arrington, one of my casual Facebook friends (I don’t know Mike that well), in my newsfeed today pitching Blockbuster subscriptions and the movie Cloverfield. Go figure.. I guess Mike needs some more revenue streams. 
Clicks over to here – sign me up – is there a TechCrunch discount?
Looks like my privacy is well secured here, but what about about Mike’s? Does he even know he’s in this ad in my newsfeed and whoever else’s newsfeed? And…. what’s Mike’s cut $$$ if it’s his influence that influences me to signup for Blockbuster?
Wow great idea. Take one of the blogosphere’s most influentials, out of my friendslist, and use his reputation, influence, and celebrity status to get me to signup for Blockbuster.
Except Mike is the tech startup blogger extraordinaire. If he suggested to me to go check out this startup, I’d be there in a minute. I am there in a minute anyway because I read Techcrunch every day. But, what does any of that have to do with Blockbuster and movie rentals? Startups and movies?
So let me get this straight. Blockbuster pays Facebook for the ad placement, uses Mike’s photo and FB attentionstream to entice me to click on the ad, Mike doesn’t directly know his reputation and FB attentionstream are being used or how many times, and FB takes 100% revenue for this transaction be it click or action.
Do I have that right? Seems like FB should cut the influencer in on this transaction since they’re leveraging influencer data, influence and reputation. Then it would make more sense. SocialSense – there now you have the name. It would also create a definitive ad influence metric.
One more thing, shouldn’t the ad category match the influencer’s influence category?
Later……
Please follow me on twitter, my conversation has moved over there….
Technorati Tags: attentionstreams, Blockbuster, Cloverfield, Facebook, influence, Mike Arrington, SocialSense, SocialAds
Read MoreWalt’s obstacles to Internet as replacement for TV
Walt’s obstacles to Internet as replacement for TV
1> Doesn’t easily connect to the TV
2> Consumer resistance to ads
3> US is a 3rd World Broadband Nation
#1> My friend Scott Converse has an interesting solution for this one.
#2> Is not exclusive to TV. Pick a site any site and find me a relevant non-intrusive ad. The Internet has not solved this yet either. Ok maybe a google search ad – that is certainly as relevant as it gets.
#3> Is a huge problem with International competitive consequences. Are our MSOs and Carriers in a position to solve our International digital divide challenge?
Technorati Tags: TV, Walt Mossberg
Read More