New Persuasion

Information Therapy - User Generated Wellness

Managed Care. Magazine recently ran an article about Information Therapy. What is information therapy?

"... the practice of providing more and better information to patients so they can contribute more to their healing...the term information therapy applies to a wide range of uses and situations. For some providers, information therapy is literally a physician-written prescription telling a patient to read specific information, learn it, and apply it. For others, information therapy is used to help a patient make treatment decisions, such as whether to continue chemotherapy."

There's even The Center for Information Therapy - a non-profit which gives support to both doctors and patients. 

This is personalization at its best.  One doctor said, "The greatest untapped capacity in health care is the patient.  Engagement of the patient is powerful and allows for outcomes that aren't available with any other approach."

It sounds a lot like user-generated content - or in this case - user generated wellness.

Thanks to Resource Shelf for the link.

Flickr photo by Anti-Social Butterfly

Too much of too much

If you asked Americans to describe their daily life in a single word, you would probably get answers such as “busy”, “stressful”, “rushed” or “saturated.” We are a nation of busy people who are constantly on the go and multi-tasking. We are inundated with more information and more choices than ever before. We are recipients of more types of media and media messages than ever before. In a typical day we text friends, email colleagues, surf the web, watch 100+ channels on our TV, listen to our iPod, watch TV on our iPod, plan our next vacation, choose among 30+ flavors of soda, sign our kids up for summer camp and Spanish lessons, compare bank rates online, and then realize we have no time to sleep or prepare dinner.

• A recent analysis of newspaper articles shows that this saturation is apparent every day in everything we do.
• We encounter traffic on our drive to work. New York City is attempting to reduce congestion by enacting legislation that would charge commuters into the city a fee. Suburban sprawl in India results in trains so crowded that 13 people die every day from getting hit by commuter trains.
• We go to the book store to buy a new book. How do we choose among the thousands of titles?
• Our children are involved in more after-school activities than ever. Three year olds are taking Chinese and newborns are on waiting lists for preschool. However, recent studies show that kids need more time for free play and family togetherness. How can we stop the madness and let kids be kids?
• DirectTV now lets you access 185 channels on your CAR’s video system. Do we need to be tuned in at all times?
• An email is no longer just a few quick sentences to confirm meeting plans. Emails now include large digital video clips, photos, PowerPoint presentations and spreadsheets. Yahoo now offers unlimited storage space for its users. Essentially, you never have to delete email ever again. Yet, these innovations are just too much for many people. They can’t keep up with all the email. Adding spam to the mix makes it that much worse. Some people have declared “email bankruptcy” in which they have deleted their entire inboxes and are discouraging friends and colleagues from emailing them.
• Coke and Pepsi together offer about 100 different carbonated beverages.
• 43% of working people claim they’d rather have an extra hour of sleep than an extra hour of free time. Only 26% of adults get the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night.

What does all of this mean for today’s society?

We have too much and too many choices. There is no escaping saturation and there is starting to be a backlash. People yearn for a simpler time and a simpler life. They want their kids to go outside and play in the backyard without worrying that Johnny won’t get into college because he played hide and seek one afternoon. We used to think we wanted it all and more. However, like the old adage “be careful what you wish for”, we’ve gotten it all and now want to get rid of it. There has been a large increase in activities reminiscent of a simpler time. We used to pay people to make our sweaters and now we want to knit them ourselves. We enjoy turning off the lights and eating dinner by candlelight. People daydream about going on vacation somewhere where their Blackberry and cell phone don’t work. With so much information out there to sort through, we are tired. We feel pressured to sort through all the options and make the best decision at all times. We feel we have to weigh all our options, make a decision and then keep searching for more. Satisfaction is no longer an option. Yet, now that we’ve seen all the options, it is hard to go back. We are instead filtering out irrelevant information and trying to focus on just what is important to us and our families and our everyday lives. That is still more than enough.

A Roll of...Riddles?

We are busier now than we've ever been.  We love to do two things at once.  We love to feel like we are accomplishing something even when we should be relaxing.  I know I like to try to get reading done while watching TV, cook dinner during commercial breaks, check email when I can at home, and get as much done in the short 24-hour window of time I have available each day. 

Well, according to Trendhunter Magazine, some people love to challenge their mind while they are taking care of other business. 

No longer waste your time in the little boys room reading the back of shampoo or deoderant bottles. Educate yourself with the ultimate toilet roll.

The product page describes, “Now you can while away the time with some great brain teaser tests that will always be close at hand. From some mathematical gymnastics, to classic Sudoku, the Mind Trainer Loo Roll has some great brain-bending puzzles to keep your brain ticking and stop you [from] reading the same joke book for the fortieth time.”

Features:
A toilet roll with 10 different puzzles/games imprinted onto it:
1. Sudoku
2. Memory trials word version
3. Strip talking
4. Memory Trials with numbers
5. Brain exercises
6. Count the colours
7. More math
8. Ladders
9. Mental arithmetic
10. Stroop.

This is a good example of how we want our minds to be constantly challenged.  We embrace our ability to learn more now than ever-- and are finding more and more ways to fit this into our old wind-down time.  Apparently the metro isn't the only place to sit and play a game of Sudoku anymore...

So many channels, so little on

Nielsen Media Research recently released a report that found the average household now gets 104.2 different TV channels.  Eleven years ago this number was just at 41.1 channels.  However, even with this huge jump, the average viewer only actually watches 15.7 of these channels, up from 10.1 in 1995.  So, even though we now have over 60 new channels to watch, we're only taking advantage of 5 of them. 

Davis Freeberg finds this very interesting:

What’s interesting about this stat though, is that even though consumers are watching more channels, because the number of channels they have access to has expanded so rapidly, they are actually watching a smaller percentage of channels overall. In 1995, the 10.1 channels that consumers were watching represented about 25% of all channels that were available to them, but today, because we now have over a 100 channels to watch, the 15.7 average channels, really only represents about a 15% share. As the internet and digital delivery continue to exponentially increase the number of programs that you have to choose from, fragmentation will present an even greater challenge for the television industry then it does today.

Number of Channels Available in the Average U.S. Home

YEAR	# of Channels	# of Channels Viewed	% of Available Channels Viewed
2006	104.2	15.7	15.1%
2005	96.4	15.4	16.0%
2004	92.6	15.0	16.2%
2000	61.4	13.6	22.1%
1995	41.1	10.1	24.6%
1990	33.2	n/a	n/a
1985	18.8	n/a	n/a

Most of the new channels added have very specific content and are targeted to a very niche market.  Therefore, the average viewer wouldn't be interested in most of what the new channels have to offer.  However, you'd think there must be a demand if the channels remain on tv.  But in today's society with more demands on our time and more media outlets like the Internet and Netflix, it really isn't a huge surprise that we aren't watching more channels on a regular basis.  How many channels do you watch? 

2007 Trends - Part 2

Rohit Bhargava of Influential Interactive Marketing writes about the "Top 7 Marketing Trends of 2007":

Sharing a Corporate Personality – For too many years, large organizations have focused much of their marketing and communications on becoming "faceless" - yet the danger of facelessness is now becoming better understood.  In short, companies cannot connect with customers in a meaningful and emotional way without having a personality.  As more organizations realize this fact, we will continue to see more "corporate bloggers" and more touch points for customers to interact with the true personality of a brand.  Look for social media to play a bigger part in overall marketing strategy as a result.

Widget Marketing – A trend I have been following since earlier in the year, widgets have made significant strides as an accepted marketing technique in recent months.  Many new blog oriented services are launching Widgets in Typepad's gallery, startups offer their own widgets as a quick way of introducing their service, and new products like Chumby (a compact clock-radio-like product that has a wireless connection) are bringing widgets out of the online world and into the real one.  For marketers looking to offer a quick introduction to their service, or those seeking to create an online connection with customers - widgets will find more users in 2007. 

Social Media Optimization – Originally introduced just a few months ago, SMO has rapidly blossomed into a movement in the online marketing industry worldwide.  Primarily being driven at the moment by those in the search marketing industry, in 2007 I suspect SMO will continue to get broader use from marketers interested in building traffic and buzz online, moving far beyond linking strategy and smart SEO into the marketing mainstream.  Hooks to allow site visitors to easily share and bookmark content may become more commonplace than those ubiquitous "email a friend" links.

AutoTagging and AutoSorting - I have written often about the trend for visual search and how companies like Riya are leading the way for photo recognition technology that allows imagery on the web to be more effectively tagged and organized.  In 2007, we will see more solutions like this that offer autotagging, autosorting and the next extension of this technology ... auto recommendations, where new content of any format can be recommended and people can find new content more easily.  This will continue to create waves in how users watch video online, find music, and browse the web.
Top 7 Marketing Trends for 2007 - continued

Human Filtered Search – One of the effects of the personal media revolution is an exponential increase in the amount of content online.  This will continue to lead online users to search beyond the algorithm for new ways of finding information.  A key method for this is human filtered search, where people are sorting content on the web, creating their own groupings and sharing that with others.  Just as Jerry Yang initially built Yahoo as a directory to help him and friends sort through the exploding amount of content online, now sites like Squidoo and Rollyo are offering alternative ways of finding information online.  The human side of search looks set to become a force in 2007.

Contentcasting - Putting content online, and then trying to spread the word about it is so 2006.  Contentcasting is set to be the new standard, enabled by RSS and a growing number of online users that are finding the only way to keep up with all the news and information they care about is to subscribe to feeds and access it that way.  Contentcasting will relate to videoblogs, audio podcasts, and frequently updated content in any area of the site - from a blog to a newsroom.  Got content that you want to spread around?  Don't just market it -- broadcast it and let your users/customers pick up the feeds.

Online Identity Shifting –
If you add the success of Facebook, Myspace, Vox, Second Life, LinkedIn and Flickr together - you would come to a single conclusion: that having and sharing your identity online is hot right now.  This is not about blogging or about uploading your photos online, this is a phenomenon of having an extension of your personality online to share with friends, family and colleagues.  With the number of assets we can now create - from photos and videos to full podcast programs about our lives, the appeal of sharing this with those you care about will continue to represent a force in driving more people towards social media.  Within these online representations of self, brands and products will continue to play a large role.  People will talk about products they like and don't like - they will share brand experiences, and they will even become brand ambassadors for products and services that they care about.  In this world where individual lives are shared online, there will be huge opportunities for marketers in 2007.

To me the Human Filtered Search and the Auto Tagging and Auto Sorting are along the same lines - how to find the best information for my needs right now, and how to find it again later.  We will need more and more of these filters in the future because we will be ever more saturated with information. 

The Borat Ate the Cheese

Here at New Persuasion, we have a category called Saturation Generation, which, simply put, means we are inundated all the time with information, ideas, credit card applications, and just plain stuff.  It was the subject of Barry Schwartz's book, The Paradox of Choice:  Why More is Less.  Basically he said too many choices left us dissatisfied and unhappy customers.  So with that intro, I want to show you the greatest example of over-saturation I've come across in pop culture - a deleted scene from the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America --

Thanks to Influx Insights for the link. 

Okay, So Advertising is Not Dead

Jake McKee, of Community Guy blog, wrote a comment to my post the other day about advertising not being needed.  I thought it was so good I should post about it today.  Here it is:

OK, I'm the first to admit and agree that advertising in the future will be something radically different than it's been in the past. But at the same time, there'll always be a place for it in some form.

Think about what "advertising" really means. At its heart it's about getting a core message out. While users are unquestioningly smart and companies are often dumb, that doesn't mean that turning the keys over to users actually works. Think about where digital music (and movies) would be without Apple's push (and advertising) of the iPod. Probably as far along as it was pre-iPod.

We need to stop thinking that advertising is gone. Even if push messaging disappears, then we'll need a collection method for all the ideas coming from consumers. We'll need a method of getting user and company involvement in selecting most popular ideas. Someone's going to have to tell others about those efforts. That's advertising.

But the funniest thing is that as we get more options, we tend to want less. Read the social customer manifesto - one of the points is that we don't want advertising/sales pitches....unless they're relevant and then we want them yesterday.

The question is not whether we'll have advertising, it's what will advertising look like.

He's so right - and I think advertising will morph into a service for people rather than the interruption it is now.  Saying advertising is dead is really my lazy way of getting attention  (of advertising my message).  I actually wrote a post called Advertising is Going Through Menopause a long time ago - and I still think  what I said is true.  Thanks Jake.

I Suffer from Ibesity

Hello, my name is Nellie Lide and I am ibese.  I have 500+ emails in my work inbox waiting for my attention - most of these are newsletters and reports I've opted to receive from various experts.  In my gmail account I have some 4800 articles, under 102 labels - most of which I haven't read but I want to read.  I get 7 magazines at work, 5 more at home along with 2 daily newspapers.  I subscribe to 322 blogs via newsgator, and have some 2500 posts to read there. 

I suffer from ibesity - I am an information addict.  I want the best information and the best thinking.  This is not to be confused with a news junkie - I do not need to know the latest, breaking news - I want to know what people are thinking about, what new ideas are out there that will make me think.  Because of the Internet, I daily find more thoughts from more people that I want to delve into. 

But it's reaching the point where I have no time to think because I have too much to collect.  I have taken all the myriad paths an ibese person can take - I've binged and purged, I've starved myself, I've tried all the latest information diets - none of them work.  I've considered surgery - (taking a sledgehammer to my computer) - but insurance doesn't cover that. 

I know I'm not alone.  Won't others stand up and admit to their ibesity?  Something must be done.

Scrambled Advertisers

Every time I read about the newest place advertisers have found to push their message I go a little crazy.    From Brand Autopsy:

Last year, CBS promoted its fall television shows on Water Coolers and Prescription Bags. This year, CBS is using “On-Egg Messaging” from Egg Fusion to promote its new shows.

John Moore calls it ad creep.  I call it unacceptable.  Just because I see my eggs 4 times before I use them doesn't mean I want to see the CSI logo four times too.  And it doesn't mean I want someone touching my food before I do.

Leave my eggs alone. 

Leave my toilet paper alone. 

Leave my forehead alone. 

Leave me alone at the movies (I already paid once- why should I have to pay in time and attention to watch your ads?) 

Leave my Broadway show alone.

Leave my spaceship alone.

What's left - Father John's sermon, Stephen Hawking's wheelchair, the Rosetta Stone?   Why do advertisers and companies waste money by cluttering up my life in so many devious ways?  It's going to reach the point where I (and others) will pay good money enjoy ad-free time and space.  (that's already happening with DVRs).

Spend the money on making a great product or on helping someone.  Don't spend it on eggs.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Leave me alone.

When the Press (and New Media folk) are your Customers

To follow yesterday's post on visuals - I want to mention that Todd Defren at PR Squared -and his company Shift Communications - have put together a "Social Media Press Release Template."   They also put together an actual press release based on this template.  It's awesome.  So New Persuasion.

Here's why I like it:

1.  Easy
2.  Visual. 
3.  Transparent
4.  Clear
5.  Layered - can get more info if you want it.
6.  One stop shop - get info fast

This list resembles the one I put together for what customers want and pay attention to.  Todd is right on the money.  Bloggers love a one-stop shop, but beyond new media, I think this works for traditional journalists too.  Todd also answers the questions from the corporate legal department using Pfizer's launch of a new drug as an example:

What if you are a blogger or even a traditional reporter, and you want to use a photo of the new pill for your post or article? I couldn't find one, not even on the official Chantix site.  OK, no biggie, let's use the Chantix logo.  Whoops: can't get a workable Chantix logo off the Pfizer site, nor the Chantix site.  Hmm.  How about the official Pfizer logo, then?

Photo: A free corporate logo to accompany this story is available immediately via Wieck Photo Database to any media with telephoto receiver or electronic darkroom, PC or Macintosh, that can accept overhead transmissions.  To retrieve a logo, please call 972-392-0888.

Sheesh!  Way too much trouble, especially for a typical blogger.

And Todd doesn't stop there - he's put together a del.icio.us site to track anyone who uses the template.   

It's one small step for the morphing world of PR, and one giant leap the customer Journalist.

Reaching Customers with Visuals

"We are all visual creatures, and the brain can process visual information far more efficiently than words."

These wise words from one of my favorite older posts by Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users.  And now she's written a new post about something that's been on my mind lately.  Visuals.  People (and customers) remember and respond best to visuals.  It seems more and more important these days to try and craft your side of the conversation not just with words, but also with pictures.  And so Kathy writes about making sure your visuals are clear.

You see this sign and think it's about the breed of dog, right?  Or you're not quite sure what it's trying to tell you. 

This sign is easy to understand:



Kathy gives some general principles for visuals:

• Differences in an image are interpreted as meaningful information. If two things represent the same idea, make them the visually similar. Conversely, if two things represent different ideas, make them different!
• Think about what a sign/graphic is really supposed to say--if spoken--and try to "say" that same thing visually, in the least confusing way.
• Include the context! Show all relevant relationships, and if necessary, draw attention to the key concept.
• Do not "say" something that isn't true. Whatever the brain sees first is likely to stick, so any attempt to qualify or make exceptions or explain what's on the sign in a way that conflicts with the image is a problem.

It's the screenwriter's maxim - show don't tell.   

The Customer's Attention and DNA Advertising

I'm always ready for a conversation about attention.  If you want customers for your business/product/service, you first need their attention -  and perhaps more importantly - you need to give them your attention.

Christopher Carfi at The Social Customer Manifesto and John Hagel of Edge Perspectives with John Hagel  (along with others) have come up with lots of attention grabbing insights at the Innovation Marketing Conference (wish I was there.)

First, John Hagel's 3 A's of Attention:

• Attract - have customers seek you out
• Assist - how do you assist customers, pre and post purchase?
• Affiliate - mobilize complementary resources to deliver more value

To this list I would add Associate - give your customers a mechanism to find each other (and your employees) and share interests.

And Christopher Carfi's four insights:

• Trust - the most trusted person is "a person like me." Attention is given to those who are trusted. Ergo...determining affinity between vendor and customer, or members of a customer community, is a critical precondition in gaining trust. .
• Scarcity and exclusivity may focus attention. (Think about the "red velvet rope" at the trendy club of your choice.) The flipside of this is that exclusivity, especially fake exclusivity, is fashion and the attention fades once the bloom is off the rose.
• Attention is Contextual -The degree of a attention given to a particular vendor, customer or situation will also be affected by the competing alternatives for that attention at that moment in time.
• The Attention Gap - Attention between vendor and customer is not always symmetric. In other words, there are times when a customer is giving a great deal of attention to the vendor ("I have a critical issue and need to fix this right now!") and the vendor is giving little or no human attention to the customer ("Thank you for your call...your call is very important to us...your average wait time is '10' minutes...fade to Girl from Ipanema...").   Be careful, because when this imbalance occurs - the customer gets frustrated and becomes dissatisfied with the relationship.

And all this leads me to think about advertising.  Advertising is a monorail - there are no trains for the customers to get advertising's attention.  That has to change.  Advertising is nothing more than a message, with no personal meaning behind it.  Advertising will become more about a real relationship with the customer, with real knowledge behind it.  DNA advertising is in - Over the Counter advertising is out.

Related Posts:  Attention Must be Mine, Pay Attention or Pay for Attention, Attention IS Currency, Mainstream Media is Molting

Cucumber Water and Rainforest Music Please…

Our alarm clocks sound at 5:30 am as we jump out of bed and begin our typical hectic routines of downing 3 cups of coffee, sitting in traffic, then rushing to work and running around town like chickens with our heads cut off.  Yes, we are Americans.  Our days are filled with meetings, gulping down quick meals on the run, and families that need us—often times accompanied by a zombie-like state of consciousness that is all too familiar.  This may explain why diseases related to stress are on the rise. 

As long days at the office begin to catch up to us, we sometimes grow to realize that we need time to relax.  Maybe an elemental balancing massage or a cucumber mask with rosemary and lavender oils and a warm eye pillow?  This is exactly the thinking of many Americans…

The spa industry has sparked somewhat of a “wellness revolution,” according to world-renowned economist Paul Zane, and is forecasted to be a trillion dollar industry in the next decade.  In 1990, $450 million was generated worldwide by spas.  Nine years later, this number had risen to a whopping $5 billion.  Yeah, wow.  Spas are sprouting up throughout the United States, with the greatest concentration being in what spa community experts refer to as “the spa belt,” where more than 2,450 spas are open for business.  This Southwestern area includes Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah—which is due to baby-boomers flocking to warmer climates with money to spend. 

There are about 12,000 spas in the United States at this very moment.  The average spa makes approximately $950,000 in revenue and averages 11,577 visits per year.  This evens out to about 136 million estimated spa visits in the United States(the 2003 average).  Even the Canadian spa market is seeing a record number of customers eager to spend a couple of hours getting massages, facials, reflexology treatments, and nail services every now and then.  Since 68% of people admit to going to the spa to relieve stress, this tells us that our life-stressors are making us feel as if we deserve a break.  29% of women say that they are likely to visit a spa on a company business trip, and, surprisingly, 29% of the current spa-going population happens to be of the male persuasion. 

If you happen to have an extra $25 in your wallet, you will be pleased to know that Fido can enjoy a little R & R as well.  The dog Spa “Biscuits and Bath” offers a hot oil treatment for your pooch, as well as pedicures and grooming with “all-natural shampoos and conditioners.”  This all relates to the “Passions and Pastimes” sector of New Persuasion because consumers are beginning realize the importance of taking time to do things that enrich their lives, and allow them to get away from the hectic routines present in their everyday lives.  Everyone can always use a little more “me-time.”

Mainstream Media is Molting

I recently completed an overview of both news and entertainment media for Dan - in preparation for a talk he and Peter Hart will be giving at the RTNDA Conference Convention in Las Vegas.  And I thought I'd share what I learned about old and new media:

Media is about ATTENTION. 
Americans are turning their attention away from mainstream media (MSM) and that is upsetting the established media world.  Our attention is divided among so many sources that there’s even a name for it:  continuous partial attention.

They look back at their glory days and bemoan lower profits.  MSM deludes itself into thinking they are in control of the message.  They aren’t.  The audience wants to be part of the message now.

MSM asks the wrong question: 
How do we get our audience back? 

What MSM should ask is:
How are we relevant to people’s lives?

What we want and pay attention to:

1.  Easy (see Google’s homepage)  which includes:

• Simplicity -  not complicated
• Clarity - clear, concise
• Visual – we like pictures

2.  Information We Can Trust – Be open, transparent, we will continue to trust sources we've always trusted - unless they give us a reason not to.

3.  Filters:

• Direction to information 
• Interpretation of information
• Layers of Information – I should be able to go as deep into a subject/story/interest as I want.

4.  Inclusion/Community – part of something bigger than themselves – witness rise of MySpace and blogs to name just two.  Four aspects of community are:

• Conversation – I want you to listen to me.
• Sharing – like giving someone a drawer in your bureau
• Personal – I want you to know who I am
• Niche – special interests, passions

5.  Fast –  adapt quickly, morph at light speed

6.  Mobile – anywhere access, portable

7.  Now – don’t make me wait, my schedule overrides your schedule

In looking at the role of local radio and television stations, I’ve come to some conclusions:

Local Radio/TV stations/Newspapers – Areas to Grow

1.  Community builders – who knows their area better? If you think of your station as a house, you want to build additional rooms for your local communities, even at the micro-level – space for them to report their own news, activities, events.  Space for them to share what they know alongside what you’ve reported.  And connect your local communities with each other.  Connections and Partnerships are key to your future.

2.  Embrace Citizen Journalism – viewers can be sources of news – contributors not just consumers.  Andrew Nachison, Director of the  Media Center research group in Reston, VA says, "The old model was,‘here's the story, take it or leave it,’ and the new model is, ‘here's what we think the story is, please tell us if you know more, and let us know if we've gotten anything wrong’." Professionals working with amateurs – brings a fuller picture to whatever the story is. 

3.  Local is so important today.  The ability to report news on the local level is what local media should do best.   The more local, the more personal things become. 

4.  Make your content available 24/7 –

• Stop thinking in terms of Broadcasting and Schedules.  Local stations have wonderful news-gathering capabilities and they are established brands.  It’s the distribution that’s old-fashioned.  We can and will be able to get our news from satellites, phones, cable, computer, iPods, blackberries, etc… whenever we want it.  Make your content available 24-hours a day, in every format possible, in every length possible.  The good news is that news consumption is at an all time high -  make it easy for people to access it.
• Make ALL your content available - not just what was broadcast; but archives, photos, raw tape, unedited interviews.  And give your audience a place to play with it – create mashups, podcasts, videos, whatever they want. 

5.  Be more open about facts versus interpretation.  Anyone can get the facts these days – what we need more of are interpreters explaining -  what does it all mean?  If you want a model – look to the BBC.  Richard Sambrook, Director of the BBC's World Service and Global News division,  said the BBC is concentrating on three key areas:  1) Connecting Audiences,  2) Verification of News, and 3) Analysis, explanation and context addition.  According to Sambrook, the BBC is now "in the middle of reorganizing and reprioritizing itself for a fully-digital, on-demand environment. On-demand is our future.”

6.  Share advertising revenue – If other websites or blogs drive traffic to your website and that leads to advertising revenue – share that revenue with the originating site – this would encourage lots more links to your site and generate lots of good will and relationships.

I don't pretend to be the brains here - I'm just another filter - adding my own thoughts on top of ideas culled from some great minds.  For more thought-provoking solutions to MSM's dilemma - read these:

Jeff Jarvis:

• Interaction vs. reaction: But enough about you… 
• New News: Deconstructing the newspaper                                          
   

Erick Schonfeld, Business 2.0:

• Bite-sized video is booming
• 5 ways to fix Time Warner

Hollywood Reporter:

• The Future of Entertainment - tons of articles

We Media 2.0 , The Media Center at the American Press Institute:

• Executive Summary

Jon Fine, BusinessWeek:

• The Daily Paper of Tomorrow

Mark Cuban, blogmaverick:

• Newspapers, Stupidity and Shackleford
• Print piracy costs much more than music piracy…but its an opportunity

Richard Huntington, Planning Director of the advertising agency
United London, Adliterate blog:

• PVRs: Less Talk and More Actions
• Advertising engagement - lessons from the PVR revolution

Simon Dumenco, Advertising Age:

• Is the Times Trying to Commit Slo-Mo Suicide?

My Location is in the Public Domain

There are some innovations that straddle the line between unbelievable and… well, creepy. On my list right now:

Item #1: Google Earth. When it launched last year, I’ll admit I was one of the people who downloaded it immediately and spent the entire afternoon plugging in every address I could think of, fascinated by the fact that I could have a 3D image of anywhere in the world at a moments notice. (If you haven’t already checked it out, try it) There’s several blogs (here and here) dedicated to the latest and greatest on Google Earth, offering a constant stream of news and updates.  

 

 

 

However, an article highlighting international security concerns makes me think, in our increasingly transparent society, how much information is too much?

 

 

According to Vipin Gupta, a security analyst at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, “When you have multiple eyes in the sky, what you’re doing is creating a transparent globe where anyone can get basic information about anyone else. Times are changing, and the best thing to do is adapt to the advances in technology.

Interesting, but transparency in absolutely everything? I don't know that I should be able to locate every government building and military base in Uzbekistan- and the idea that I have access to such info doesn't leave me feel enlightened in New Persuasion thought... it scares me.   

Item #2: Cell phone advertising, specifically “I know where you are so I’m going to adjust your ad accordingly” cell phone advertising. A recent NY Times article (reg. required) touched on this up and coming technology. IamPowered says this about it :

Marketers said they were particularly excited about the prospect of eventually using cell phones, many of which are equipped with global positioning systems, to send ads to consumers based on their location. With that information, marketers could, in theory, send pitches from retailers to cell phone users who might be in the vicinity of a store.

Wow. While there are some benefits (AdPunch give you 12) it's hard to look past the ad overkill. I see your billboard. I hear your commercial. I minimize your pop-up. Instead of finding a way to stalk me using new technologies, make a product or service that is worth finding. Don't worry, if it's valuable to me, I'll find you.

The Wizards Experience

I attended a Washington Wizards game the other night.  I think it had been awhile since I’ve been to a NBA game and things at these games sure have changed. 

Everywhere I turned, I was in complete sensory overload.  Between the advertisements everywhere around the MCI Center, giveaways at every break (free pizza anyone?), cameras scanning the audience for best smile, kids performing marital arts at halftime, cheerleaders dancing and wowing the crowd with their numerous stunts and costume changes, blimps floating by dropping off coupons, and marketing interns shooting Spirit Stix into the audience, I almost forgot there was a basketball game going on.   It was almost as if the athletes were a last minute addition to the show.  I haven’t even mentioned the music yet.  Before, during and after just about every shot or time-out, the MCI Center was a virtual dance club.  The MCI Center must have a DJ on duty to play all those songs.  It was amazing. 

Granted, it was a mid-week game and the Wizards haven’t won too many games lately, but I really think the secondary entertainment got more reaction out of the audience than the actual NBA players.  This is the saturation generation at its best.  I think the NBA has realized that basketball games are about more than just the athletes and the game and that people attend such sporting events for the whole entertainment experience.  As the Milwaukee Bucks website states

The game lasts 48 minutes, but you're a guest for 150 minutes…. it's our never-ending quest to deliver an experience that is -- you guessed it -- FUN!

These teams seem to want the fans not to have even a second of down time to think or talk to their neighbors. They want fan interaction, participation, and enthusiasm.  During halftime of the game I attended, the kids karate show ended with 3 minutes before the 3rd quarter was to start.  There was approximately a 30 second gap between the end of the show and when the players came out to warm up.  I think that 30 seconds was the only time during the entire game with no music being played, no ad being aired, and no activity on the court or scoreboard.  And I almost got a little panicked- what will I do with myself until the next entertainment arrives? 

However, some basketball fans are starting to complain.  They want to filter out distractions being forced upon them and concentrate on the actual basketball.  Fans over at Barstool Sports say:

I like the occasional half-court shot contest or something like that. But is it really necessary to cram in so many events that it almost causes sensory overload in some people?...  What gets them REALLY excited are the t-shirt cannon shoots and the prize drops from the rafters. These kids aren’t fans of the Celtics; they are fans of the Celtics game experience.

NBA commissioner David Stern made a recent comment about the “abundance of artificial noise filling the league's arenas” and wants to have some “quiet nights” of basketball with no piped in music.  The Dallas Mavericks tried this one night recently.  There was no piped in music and the only sounds were “sneakers squeaking on hardwood, basketballs thumping and players grunting.”  However, Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban reports:

Ten to 1 [fans were] against the sneakers and for the music.

I think this phenomenon is representative of our entire society.  We are constantly being bombarded with commercials, ads, music, entertainment, and distractions in general and, as a result, have a hard time concentrating on just one thing at a time.  We think that maybe it is too much and want to tone it down but then realize we need constant stimulation and get lost without it.  Concentrating on just one thing at a time is a thing of the past.  Multi-tasking is how we get through our days.  We have short attention spans and get bored easily.  New and different options – whether in entertainment or as a consumer- are no longer a luxury but a necessity.