Creating the National Broadcasting (NB) Times

I can’t help thinking this morning that these words we’ve created, ‘newspapers’ and ‘television’ will likely not exist in 10-15 years. While people are fighting to save the newspaper industry (which, as a lover of the morning paper, I deeply respect), I keep going back to this idea of ‘content provider.’ NBC Universal President and C.E.O. Jeff Zucker recognizes NBC’s purpose as a content provider, and reading Newsweek’s story ‘A No-Paper Newspaper,‘  about how e-ink may have the ability to save the newspaper industry, I think it is not the newspaper industry that will be saved, but the convergence of the NBCs and the New York Times that will be the way of the future. I don’t speak of convergence as the large GE and media owners of the world gobbling up the little guys (though, that already is and will likely continue to happen), but, more so that all content providers will provide information on multiple platforms, so this distinction between ‘television’ and ‘web’ and ‘newspapers’ will not exist.

Corporate PR Blogger Elizabeth Albrycht suggests that brands are the new media companies, providing content consumers want while engaging in this web 2.0 participatory communications model. It does make me a bit unsettled, to think that information will be presented in the form of a constant stream of opinions and view points, as opposed to objective facts and viewpoints; however, at the same time, it is providing an opportunity for many voices to be heard. This is wonderful news! And, with the convergence of the NBCs and the New York Times of the world, these voices will/are not confined to simply television or print, but rather all possible platforms.

‘Niche is the new normal’

(I don’t mean to beat the dead cow, but, the importance of niche is worth repeating…)

Reading Mark’s Harris’ article, ‘Saving TV,’ in this month’s Conde Nast Portfolio, I often paralleled the advice given with that of both my personal brand (which, I am still building), as well as the public relations industry, overall. Harris suggests, ‘accept the fact that niche is the new normal,’ citing the successes of TBS as the ‘home for comedy’ and TNT as the ‘network for drama.’ In contrast, the networks are struggling to be all things to all people and have not found success.

Further suggestions included ‘know your brand,’ ‘don’t count on ‘flow’ unless all your programming is aimed at the same audience,’ and ‘content counts.’ These are arguably the present marketing rules of most any company, though I particularly thought of the public relations industry after reviewing a tongue-in-cheek article by John Greer on bnet.com entitled, ‘Bankruptcy PR is the Newest Agency Market Niche.’ While I’m curious how well bankruptcy PR will do as a niche, I do believe that niche is going to be how many companies succeed as competition grows, both domestically and abroad.

The Future of Marketing

This week, Business Week’s Burt Helm highlights R/GA, a company that is truly revolutionizing the world of marketing. The article, ‘Attention-Deficit Advertising,’ discusses how brands are providing services to customers.

One example is Motorola’s campaign in the Hong Kong International Airport, where soon-to-be passengers were able to view pictures and messages from the friends and family members they had just waved good-bye to. Intermixed with the messages of love, luck and best wishes were ads of various brands. By providing customers with one last message of home, advertisers were given a truly captivated audience.

I believe that advertisers need to get smart. They need to offer consumers something more - touching their humanity and exceeding their expectations.

Internet Word of Mouth Marketing Trends in 2008

Sam Fleming writes up an interesting article about the trends he sees in Internet Word of Mouth Marketing in the coming year in China. Here are some quick takeaways:

• He predicts a greater interaction of brands, via the Internet, as well as more sites branding themselves as social networking sites (SNS).
• He also says, “…self expression on the internet in China is driven by self exploration of different identities that netizens may feel inhibited to explore offline. Self exploration is better done anonymously. ” In saying this, he predicts ‘netizens’ will still not buy into using real names.
• Facebook still has too many competitors in China to have the power that it has in the U.S.
• PR firms in China are still looking to mainstream media; however, they need to refocus in order to be a part of the Word of Mouth Marketing on the net.
•  Vertical SNS sites will emerge.

Not Needed: Chief Marketing Officer Job Description

Reviewing a BusinessWeek article yesterday, I was somewhat, though not entirely shocked, to read a chief marketing officers’ tenure is now 23.2 months, a decrease from 23.6 months 3 years ago. Amidst the increasing rate at which employees are changing jobs, my generation’s desire for full employment satisfaction, the consistent pressure for numbers, and the current volatility resulting from the Internet, I am not surprised at the short-lived affection for a chief marketing officer’s high-pressured position.

The article also mentioned the extremely vague job description accompanied with this title. Not knowing what to do with these CMOs, companies are justifying their dismissal. However, as a Global Marketing, Communication & Advertising graduate student (yes, did you catch the words ‘marketing’ and ’student’ together - not a good combination…equating the job-less with a job perhaps on the verge of extinction), I am not overly concerned.

Despite the possible U.S. economic recession looming overhead and now slow death of the $100,000 education I have been absorbing (slight exaggeration), I see the chief marketing officer’s position as solid as the job seeker/employee makes it. Similar to the stock market, as seemingly future value increases, so does the stock, as a CMO’s perceived value increases, so does the solidification of the position. Just as negative and positive PR can either drastically hurt or help a stock, us, job seekers and employees need to tout our successes from the rooftops, convincing others of our value. We don’t say, ‘CMO - in need of job description,’ we say, ‘CMO - you can’t live without us.’

Is this being truthful? Absolutely. We can only speak the truth of our successes, but, we need to legitimately add value if we’re to stick around. Has added value become more difficult to sustain as instant results are desired? Yes. So, is there any answer here? Unfortunately, no. To add to the complexity, last week my professor suggested to us that satisfaction and work need to be redefined in our country. We’re extremely service and knowledge-oriented (CMO’s included), and the price tag of ideas and information remains to be sorted out.

So what future does this offer for a young professional just beginning her career? Well, to be honest, I’m not quite sure, yet; though, I’m positive it will require the same vitality, curiosity and work ethic the world has required from past generations.

Social Media Economics

I had the privilege of hearing Paul Gillin, author or The New Influencers, speak last night at Emerson.  I was impressed to hear how quickly the field of marketing is changing. Twenty-three million active blogs exist (the majority in a language other than English); newspaper circulation is down 8 million since 1990, and a recent study reports that by 2011, Internet Ads will be the dominate medium for advertising. Marketers can no longer control the messages they are sending out; he provided examples, such as the chicken mcnugget guys on youtube, as the new marketers.The new social media economics (compared to mass media economics) is rooted in small markets, delivered cheap and outsourced, provides limitless choice, offers fat margins and low fixed cost and has no barriers to entry. This combination is what is happening now in society, where individuals like MommyCast founders Paige Heninger and Gretchen Vogelzong and AdRants’ Steve Hall are taking consumers by storm.

Creating True Relationships

Reading up on the Forrester Consumer Forum in Chicago last weekend (thanks to Jeremy Pepper’s post), I was reminded of the process of adapting to the web.

As a student of global marketing, I know the importance of creating a relationship with my audience; however, it’s needing to discover ways to move individuals beyond ‘collectors’ and into ‘critics’ and ‘creators,’ that is needed to create true relationships.