Advertising in a Google Universe

The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) and other data collectors around the United States have been scaring the advertising community with tales of doom for the past few years: If you don't shift to New Media sources pretty soon, Mr and Ms Marketers, your audiences for advertising are going to disappear. Or at least track in a new direction. Not good news to those television networks and newspapers that depend so heavily on advertising revenue, certainly, but an alert that is shuddering the integrated communication world more fiercely each day. Not to mention the directories services that made advertising more than just a yellow page.

Google, that initially upstart search engine gone Wall Street, has made things even more dicey by localizing their media offerings online. According to WARC, "Google's Local Business service has been undergoing limited US trials since December, with the participation of selected advertisers such as Barnes & Noble. The Google Local pilot enabled searchers using terms like 'bookstore New York' to auto-activate a map of Manhattan marked with small coffee-cup logos indicating the location of selected B&N stores." (WARC, April 3, 2006)

So, everyone in the old media chain is now quaking in their boots. And, like so many interactive/direct response media of the late 1900s, the Google advertising is billed on a price per inquiry (price per click thru) basis so it's more measurable than ever. This may be the great shift for service providers, retailers, as well as branded goods makers: The more ROI measures available to prove that internet advertising is working (or not in some cases), the more budget is going to underwrite those opportunities.

What WILL happen to those creative prime time TV spots or those glossy magazines pages? Food for thought.

Free TV on your computer

Last week ABC announced that it will be offering some of its top-rated shows, for free, over the Internet. Until now you’ve had to pay $1.99 for downloads of Lost and other fare. Now they’re free, but you have to watch the embedded commercial spots. You might think, hey, its just like watching commercial TV…and you’d be right, except that now it’s on-demand. Competing networks have also been offering their programs as podcasts viewable on a computer or video-equipped iPod. NBC’s The Office is an example of a TV show that has really found its niche online. While most people still watch by turning on their TV and tuning in to a local station or cable network, the traditional “appointment TV” paradigm is beginning to wear thin around the edges. People want control of their media experience…and that means they want to watch what they want, when they want it. All of this is leaving local broadcast affiliates feeling unnecessary. Of course, it’s the bottom line that they’re worried about. More Internet downloads means fewer viewers for the broadcast of the program, and that means less advertising revenue. What do you think? Will all TV programming eventually move to on-demand delivery? And if so, what will be the role of the local broadcast affiliate?

Did 'Dateline NBC' practice sound journalism?

An April 6 USA Today story by Nate Ryan reported that “Dateline NBC” is defending its actions after bringing Muslim men to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway to gauge the reaction of NASCAR fans.

According to the article, NBC defended its reporting tactics in a statement released last week. NBC said the news magazine is ”following up on a recent poll and other articles indicating an increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States. … There is nothing new about the technique of witnessing the experience of someone who might be discriminated against in a public setting.”

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the Muslim men walked around outside the track and that NASCAR fans had no reaction to the group. Poston said NBC was seeking “to create the news instead of reporting the news.”

What do you think? Did “Dateline NBC” justify their actions? Or was the news magazine attempting to sensationalize stereotypes that exist both for NASCAR fans and for Muslims?

(See http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-04-06-dateline_x.htm)