Let’s consider how this fits.

If the TV station needs to grow audience they don’t ask the Radio station to put all of its efforts towards growing the TV audience, and vice versa.

SOLUTION – Digital media needs to join the ranks of TV and Radio and be treated with the same level of respect. What traditional broadcast media needs is a Digital Development Director; a stong champion for doing what is necessary to grow the Digital Media the same way that TV and Radio work.

Instead of treating online presence as a marketing piece treat it as another product in your lineup.

The difference is that the Digital Media has the opportunity to compete on any number of different levels (hyperlocal up to global) while TV and Radio are locked into signal reach.

APPLICATION – How does this translate for a non-media based company?

First ask what your organization creates as a by-product of acheiving its core mission. The most common item that organizations have more of than they know what to do with is data. Data is something quite easily transferred to the digital world. By giving your data a second life as a product can you turn that into tangible revenue?

Most organizations also produce tools for getting thier jobs done. Are those tools something that can be translated onto the digital domain? Would doing so provide you with additional revenue?

Finally, what tools and resources can be created out of digital development that would benefit the original mission; or enhance it?

Stop thinking about your organization’s online presence as a marketing tool and start thinking about it as a product.

I’m curious about what kind of day to day readership I’m getting and where it comes from. I can look at web stats, etc. but those don’t tell me much. I want to know how I am actually connecting with people and what you like/dislike.

A couple days ago I set up a Skreened Shop (it’s free, dead simple and anyone can do it) http://skreened.com/eob which has a couple blog related designs. I’ve sold a couple shirts already which is totally cool but what’s better is Skreened hooked me up with one excellent gift card.

So, how would you like to win this $20 gift card to Skreened?

You would! Alright then, all you need to do is comment below with the following information:

• How’d you find this post (direct, CU, twitter, facebook, etc)?
• Where in the world do you live, approximately?
• What do you like or dislike me writing about?
• Have you checked out Skreened.com yet?
• Anything else? Constructive criticism?

Cool, that’s it. I’m going to leave this open till Saturday January 11, 2009. This post is also going up on my http://elephantsonbicycles.com site so if you want another chance to win pop over there and have a look around. I’ll assign a number to each completed comment and draw one out of a hat; you’ll get an email from me if you win and I’ll post about it.

"Thanks AmyD for the sweet scarf I won from Ryan!"

An interesting thing has been happening in my online circles as of late. People are holding contests and giving out prizes. Why are contests and prizes interesting? Well, in this case it is because the people giving them away are doing so primarily for altruistic reasons.

Jeff Johnson of Urban Infill is giving away a months COTA bus pass as a way of promoting local public transit. He doesn’t work for COTA, he is merely interested in giving someone else a chance at using (and thus growing) the public transit system here in Columbus. Ryan Morgan, an insurance specialist, has taken it upon himself to gather various local made gifts which he is giving away via Twitter trivia contests. He doesn’t work for the businesses he’s promoting, he just thinks it is important that we support local business. Alvin Borromeo raffled off tickets to COSI, similarly he doesn’t work for COSI he just thought it would be nice to support a local organization. He’s yet another blogger doing something good for the community.

Now I’m not naive enough to believe that these contests weren’t also going to raise the profile of these individuals and their own projects but I don’t think that matters in this case. The prizes that they were offering are specific; they relate to building, supporting, sustaining the kind of community they believe in. When McDonald’s has their Monopoly Game every year they aren’t trying to promote community, they’re merely looking for increased sales. Bloggers could surely do something similar, and certainly they have at times, but instead of focusing only on increasing site visits these folks are focused on making a change.

Gandhi is famous for saying “Be the change you wish to see” (sorry, paraphrasing) and while I hardly want to elevate every blogger to Gandhi like status I think that is essentially what drives most solo bloggers. This desire to try and shape the digital world in the way that is most pleasing to us. For some of us we are now finding a way to extend that to our analog world as well. For some of us there is no difference between analog and digital worlds.

So what does this mean for you?

Briefly though I want to say that, if you have a blog or a website or some online presence and you either have advertisements on that site or you actively review products (which you are somehow compensated for) then you have moved away from neutrality. As long as that is ok with you then great.

So let’s say that you are in fact ok with bias and that you feel advertising is of some benefit to you in achieving your goal. Perhaps you’re a digital magazine, or newspaper; maybe you’re trying to build a home business as a blogger or consultant or something.

When you consider shilling for someone in this multimedia world think of how that effects your image. All too often the ads are an after-thought. Just because signing up for Adsense is easy doesn’t mean the income you derive from it won’t be more costly to you in loss of readership; or quality participation from those readers. What are you trying to provide to your audience, the audience you’ve probably worked hard to attract? Do you want them to notice you or the products that you are drowning in?

Ads that fit the feel and format - NYTimes Online

Ads that dominate and distract - WCMH NBC 4

My opinion, which I have not been paid for, is that you would be far better off to maintain control over your advertising content if you decide to have some than  you are to let your advertising content control you.

Sony is one of those companies which spends a good deal of money and effort in making art our of advertising. The most recent piece, Domino City, is a great example.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcnzam_R9c4&hl=en&fs=1]

You can also check out the making of the ad here.

Sadly it is advertising that provides the greatest connection to art and creativity to the general public. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing but for the fact that so much of advertising and marketing plays off of the cheapest sensitivities of humanity; fear and greed. As our schools and communities face deepening financial crisis we see deeper cuts in public arts funding, art classes and other creative endevours.

Juxtapose that with the fact that US cities are fighting to attract a global “creative class” as the way of sustaining the city and the culture, ultimately hoping that the creative’s will attract a greater diversity of tax base and eventual financial success.

I’m a fan of creating things, or enjoy other people’s creation as a way of filling my life. What if more people spent time doing this instead of trying to merely consume? What if advertisers spent more time crafting art for arts sake, instead of for product consumption?

So Rand McNally has this product with a contest: http://www.inevergetlost.com/
 
Here’s the deal. Building an online community is difficult to do and not generally as effective as connecting through established communities. Even building an entertaining online campaign itself is difficult to get moving. Locally, Experience Columbus had a fun idea with the “Not In Columbus” campaign but that cost a fair amount of money and (like so many good ideas) still drew a ton of negative remarks.
 
My idea is to actively seek out other organizations’ attempts at this type of user generated content to promote Columbus. Usually the draw that companies have that civic organizations do not is brand attraction and great prizes. This Rand McNally case is an easy one. Rand McNally wants people to show off how they are having fun as tourists using their new maps; they may even win a very nice motorscooter for it.
 
Why not show off how much fun you can have in Columbus by co-oping this campaign?. Why doesn’t EC or the Columbus Chamber or another interested civic group create an entry for this contest?
 
They could then use whatever video they create as a promotional tool on their own websites however the bigger thing would be to get it out to these other communities and sort of hijack the original promotion. Usually the winner of the promotion also gets their contribution added to a mass media type advertisement. In essence this would be product placement where Columbus is the product. Sort of a natural cross-pollination of products that are otherwise totally unrelated. Users of the primary product would then get this sense that the secondary product (in this case Columbus) is in on the secret, gets it, whatever you want to call that feeling.

Conceptually this would be very low cost, just a couple people and a flip video camera or something plus editing. There are tons of these contests coming out on a daily basis. The key is to find a way to make your entries fit into the boundaries of the contest at hand.
 
The guaranteed results would be:
You’ll learn some stuff
You’ll have fun

The hoped for result would be that:
People see Columbus as attractive through the eyes of a young couple.
Young people see the creative and unique side of Columbus.
Social Media types see that Columbus “gets it” by using digital opportunities in a unique and fun way.
These businesses hopefully get it too and see Columbus as being a place to consider for relocation or events thanks to their creative thinking (yes, I’m giving myself a compliment here).
You’ll have some content that you can also use in other ways.
And – Maybe you win some cool prizes that could then be given out as a part of your own promo events!

The worst result would be that:
You ate up a couple employees time chasing something that could’ve been really successful but wasn’t (hopefully you’ll have learned a good lesson as to why) so it is on to something else.
 
So that’s my thought, hopefully it is helpful to you.

Traditional media outlets are trying to discover how to effectively compete with new media. Why don’t they do what they are best at: investigative journalism, fact based reporting and providing audience with news that is truly useful and informative. If I want biased reporting and snarky remarks about any subject under the sun I need only turn to the internet and I can find a blog or website devoted to that. Give it a try if you don’t believe me – think there’s someone who hates old people smell then google it, I did and came up with this long list of reading (click away)!

Traditional media has the resources and ability to mine the depths of stories and come up with the real meat behind the marketing. Interestingly though is the fact that many “news” outlets are so tied to marketing that they can’t use their resources without alienating the very advertisers and owners who provide the resources. This is a terrible conundrum to be in – both for traditional media outlets and for those of us who expect better.

If you take a look at most traditional media websites you’ll have a hard time finding any useful information through all of the advertising and all the flash and announcements. For a great example of terrible traditional media websites take a look at Columbus’ NBC 4 WCMH website pictured below. Sadly (and it probably is the best of some bad sites) this site was voted the best ”news” website in Central Ohio according to Columbus Monthly Magazine. 

The principle assumption behind this ad campaign is that, for what I can only assume is a relatively low production cost, Absolut uses these comedians to target a specific audience. In particular Zach Galifianakis attracts a quirky, psuedo intellectual (well maybe a few of his audience members are actual intellectuals) urban crowd who are likely to hit the bars and maybe enjoy a vodka or two, three or four. That being said at no point does Zach actually endorse the product on the level; instead he makes fun of the advertising process which essentially makes this video akin to so many other viral marketing campaigns currently in existance.

The breakout moment of the video however is when the comedians take aim at the viral format of the video and joke about reverting back to a straight-forward endorsement advert. At this point the video is essentially working on the premise that advertising for a product in either a traditional or a viral format is just ridiculous. I’m reminded of an episode of the Simpson’s when Homer is starring as a freak at Lollapalooza and two disaffected youths question whether or not they’re being sarcastic, or if they even know anymore.

Intentional or not Absolut has asked that online marketing change direction and I couldn’t agree more. If you haven’t been jaded by the viral marketing campaigns already then you’re lucky; if you haven’t been jaded by traditional marketing methods by now then you must be very young. As a bit of a footnote I’d like to mention that the first people to make it clear that they found viral marketing annoying and amature was Coudal Partners in this video response.

So where will online marketing head next and what will we suffer for it?

When you Google social media you come up with hit after hit discussing the marketing techniques that are most effective, the tools that make mass marketting easiest and ways to target your audience. Page after page talks about “letting people carry your message” and of course there are all of the “viral” messages. Is altruism dead? What happened to institutions who do the right thing because it is the right thing to do?

Instead of acting like a greedy spoiled child who expects to have attention lavished on it; shouldn’t companies be striving for word of type recognition because they are doing the right things, not because they are exploiting the marketing system?

With each passing year I find myself more and more concerned with sincerity, effort, honesty and transparency. I believe it is time to work towards these core beliefs and away from the single minded financial model.