I went to i-design a week or so ago, a conference run by Dynamo London as part of Design Week. One of the sessions was entitled “Where’s the Money?” and featured a panel from the world of digital media advertising including Paul Dawson from Conchango, Ann Longley from Mediaedge:CIA and Andy Cameron from Fabrica. There was lots of talk of branded content, brands as publishers and how rich media and social networks are changing the face of advertising, i.e. you can’t lie about your product any more because people will go online and tell the truth. (This was something that Simon Waterfall from Poke also proclaimed in his opening address. He said something like “..there can be no more marketing bulls**t. Game over..” – contentious, but if true, probably good news for us all! :)
Anyway, the reason I wanted to write this post is that I noticed an article by Sarah Hughes in this Monday’s Guardian about how America’s The CW is putting details in the closing credits of shows like Gossip Girl on products and music featured therein, thus driving traffic to its site where, hey presto, you can download tracks and order bags and shoes and other goodies. Now this seems something pretty seismic in the world of advertising. Something people have been talking about for years that is finally starting to happen. It’s clever, and essentially creating seriously new business models – and selling stuff in an online environment where there is also a strong community who interact with the TV network and its shows, so this is opening up brands up even more to the ‘truth engine’ that is the social internet and ultimately, as convergence is happening right now, there will be even more clever strategies emerging between broadcasters, advertisers and audiences. Smaller independent content producers and niche broadcasters will be able tap in to these new opportunities, and advertising hopefully gets more interesting, and more creative. Interesting stuff huh?! If we’re heading for dark times, we all need to get cleverer. And if you’re in the business of webTV you need to get your head round these concepts, so definitely worth reading the article. (I’m trying to get my head round all this anyway, and will be writing more about advertising and revenue and such things in the not too distant future).
