Just a quick reminder that the thirty day comments period has begun for the Advertisting Unit Standards and Download Measurement Guidelines that were released this week at ad:tech at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We encourage ADM members and the public to review and provide comments by following the options here. Comments period concludes May 16.
”But you know I learned something today. We thought we could make money on the internet. But, while the internet is new and exciting for creative people, it hasn’t matured as a distribution mechanism to the extent that once you trade real and immediate opportunities for income, for the promise of future online revenue. It will be a few years before digital distribution of media on the internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers to forego their fair value in more traditional media.” (Kyle Broflovski, South Park)
Believe it, this excerpt from a recent South Park episode called “Canada On Strike” jabbed at the user generated content community (primarily YouTube). It was a hilarious show if you go for the South Park humor.
Aside from the fact that this was clearly a commentary on the recent writers strike, it got me to thinking about why things are not as rosy as they could otherwise be on the online monetization front. The downloadable media community is experiencing a piece-part of a larger phenomenon, that revenues for advertising with online media progresses slowly.
Downloading today’s available update to the Apple TV (aptly named “Take 2″), I can now experience within my living room, the promise that was buzzing about at last month’s MacWorld conference. That is, the Apple TV may very well revolutionize the way we consume (and track!!) downloadable RSS media.
These are tall words. You’ve probably heard this story before (the Roomba will revolutionize home cleaning? Pet owners might disagree); but let me explain the two reasons why:
1. Watching and listening to podcasts is straightforward and simple. Quick navigation leads to consumption without the prior subscription hassles. Devices need not sync. Desktop media management disappears, just sit back, and watch or listen. The navigation of popular and featured content is a snap. When (if?) Apple comes out with a qwerty entry device instead of the painful text entry process via the super-simple remote, we might soon easily explore the over 125,000 available subscription points within the podcast directory.
A new super-thin Apple notebook computer was not the only sexy thing to come out of MacWorld. ADM held its all-member committee working group, and what could be more attractive than progress towards infusing our industry with copious ad purchases?
Thanks to Kiptronic and Porter Novelli for hosting the meeting in San Francisco and New York City respectively, and for Blog Talk Radio to connecting the dots through conference and chat. The hour was packed with reports and ideas. There was a lot worth covering, but I want to lay out the two biggest initiatives on our near-term plate.
Ad Units - (part of the Ad Standards Committee)
Congratulations to all ADM members who have volunteered their valuable time and resources to making us a vibrant emerging industry association. Your individual work makes the measurable difference. Your collective insight, blogs, recommendations, criticisms, and solutions, all of it marks the start of a great, functional organization.
Those who ran for positions during the recent election, you are catalytic. Regardless of the results, you kick-started this process and encouraged us with your platforms and ideas. Now we proceed having voted. To the elected, thank you for your commitment to lead and over-deliver on your charge. I hope each member seeks out their own unique and valuable ways to contribute to facilitating the growth of downloadable media.
A lot is riding on our ability to make a difference to publishers, advertisers and all the companies and individuals that operate in between. This means attention to structural detail, cooperation, a good dose of patience, and learning how best to harness our energies so that our work yields real results, quickly. Our initial focus will include the following initiatives: Read more »
Like many of you I was altered to IBM’s recent report by the team over at TechCrunch. On November 8th, IBM released “The End of Advertising as We Know It,” which predicts a world in which the advertising industry will undergo exponentially increasing changes to traditional advertising models. Initial responses to the report are eloquently framed by pundits reverting back to their high school days: “Duh.” I will spare the report synopsis (I encourage you to read), except to say that if you have been half awake during the last five years, there is a good chance you would have arrived at the same conclusions (startling, but it turns out that traditional 30 second ads don’t work as well in new communication mediums, including short-form downloadable media).
So why is a report that states the apparently obvious, so important to the conversation? In part because it is primary research from a reliable source. 2,400 survey respondents represent a statistically significant sampling of consumers. And 80 advertising executives provide at least a view into the industry awareness that consumers are tired of interruptive ads, and more willing to explore digital media as a primary source of information, community and entertainment. We could use more of these reports. They don’t have to unearth new insight so much as continue to underscore the same patterns of communication dysfunction.
If you are a new media publisher you probably have had the mixed blessing of fulfilling an ad buy that doesn’t exactly meet your optimal view of an effective message. Put another way, you may have taken the money and placed the ad even though you had reservations of the efficacy. You know your audience better than anyone else. But the advertiser may not necessarily agree with you. Possibly they just met you and your unique, hyper-loyal audience. The advertiser might have spent upwards to hundreds of thousands of dollars perfecting their message strategy. Now a new media upstart is attempting to influence a process chain that was never designed to include your valuable input. And herein lies the potential friction. If the deal is not easy to do it may never get done. Hence the rationalization to a compromised ad fulfillment.
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