trendcentral points to a new search engine designed by ex-google engineers. boasting many times more sites indexed and better content search capabilities. first-reviews are pretty weak, but hey that’s what “betas” are for right?
..design looks pretty fresh too ;)
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for all you demographic data junkies, infographic addicts and aspiring sociologists check out www.measureofamerica.org visually mapping of all kinds of data, from income and health measures to toxic emissions and environmental indicators. all rolling up to a “human development index” that shows in clear view the growing disparity in “healthy” america and the rural divide.
More about American Human Development Project:
The American Human Development Project is a nonpartisan, non-profit initiative established to introduce to the United States a well-honed international approach and tool for measuring human well-being: the human development approach and the human development index. The project’s mission is to stimulate fact-based public debate about and political attention to human development issues in the United States and to empower people with an instrument to hold elected officials accountable for progress on issues we all care about: health, education and income.
NOTE: Thanks to Bill Bishop (who apparently is an austin, tx neighbor) @ dailyyonder for pointing me to this. Check out more about the topic of the rural divide and homogenization of american communities in Bill’s book The Big Sort, recently featured on the DailyShow. More on the book soon, hoping to pick it up this week while on vacation.
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.. in moments of frustration, I (as anyone who frequently reads this blog or my past posts at Ideacity will know) often throw a few shots over the bow towards the madison avenue types that still seem to be locked like deers in the headlights from the change brought on by digital media. seems like an incessant, if not silly thing to harp about in this day and age but surprisingly still a big problem. if you think i am whining about an issue that’s shrinked significantly, think again. read through this well articulated but rather sad keynote from a recent Executive Advertising Conference, that ashamedly had to be titled “there are no excuses for NOT understanding the digital future” and you’ll get the jist of my continued angst. Global CEO Irwin Gotlieb of WPP’s GroupM media firm does an outstanding job of presenting the case that many of us have been trying to drive home for many years. The lecturing tone and “mastery of the obvious” points are a bit mundane if you are obsessed with the digital media landscape, but are spot on in calling out some of the prevailing lack of self awareness that the media industry has when it comes to the huge changes afoot.
Whatever my frustration, I have been quick to call out academics, response driven digital marketers, and ROI focused vc and tech folks who are puzzled about why change has not rolled forward more quickly. Simply put, Mo Money Mo problems my friends. No matter how much change is in the air, nothing changes overnight when you have billions of dollars wrapped up into an old market infrastructure. Even more so, if clients don’t change their spending patterns dramatically there’s little reason for ad execs to make monumental media or creative shifts. Clients still aren’t buying big into digital even though the shift has gained major momentum.
Similar to Gotliebs lecture to ad execs about why it matters for the operational side of the biz, I’d not seen a super well articulated discussion of the pre-existing/massive economies of traditional ad buying and the resulting lack of change in the market. That is until I stumbled across this. Leave it to a VC firm to spell things out in dollars and sense. WIthin, Michael Speiser of Sutter Hill Ventures shows clearly how much money is on the table AND how small, nimble and measurable media players (as well as advertisers that value ROI) wil outsmart big media. My only MAJOR point of contention is the lack of any kindof caveats around the age-old “ad innovation vs brand roi measurement” argument. Sorry Mike, I’ll agree that brand activity and media spend should be and will be more accountable in the future but don’t hamstring your funded companies with short term marketing ROI and response performance metrics. A balance needs to be struck else you’ll hamper innovation. It’s hard to be another Google these days, and a relentless mentality for ROI is what drives success then huge problems for big companies. Look at Wal-mart, followed by the kick in the ass Dell received. Measured risk and reward, ROI AND creative leaps of faith made by companies like Nike, Apple, and enlightened media players like Conde Nasty are what will get companies ahead in the future.
So learning from the above, one would hope that the day is coming soon (?.. in just a few years when addressable tv rolls out) that the game will have to change. Once Sir Martin, General John Wren, and Don Michael Roth’s wallets are looking a little thin one could imagine the worker bee’s buying activity will change pretty quick. And as they say, where the wallet goes, the head and heart will follow eh?
Once that happens we’ll help move folks to the head and heart of the matter for themselves and their customers. We’ll simply forward them a ream of past posts and columns from the advertising practitioner to lead em to the future.
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Great new presentation from David Armano, combining many of the elements we all talk about: the “purchase funnel” (or lack thereof), authentic brand engagement, brand utility, social media, etc etc etc. All packaged up for us and dressed up with a bow.
It’s like x-mas in July. Thanks David.
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apparently the median age of a tv viewer is hitting a whopping 50. sucks to be a broadcast exec eh?
thanks as usual piers. great info-graphic courtesy of christian science monitor.
→ No CommentsCategories: Guilty Pleasures · Uncategorized · connections planning · industryisms · media cultures · new media · online inspiration · social mediaTags:
I’ve been doing some work with these guys, www.onnetworks.com, and by far this is my favorite episode. Classic. Check out searchinusa, a funny show. Think “best day ever” for search.
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ok, full disclosure:
#1) I’ve been avoiding the ad trades recently. Just don’t seem to get much out of them, except the occasional read of my MediaPost subscriptions.
#2) I’m a little under the weather so might be a tad bit more sarcastic/cynical. ;)
but cmon. Cannes? is this crap really relevant anymore? shouldn’t someone have put a bullet in it about 10 years ago? when even Lee Clow can’t put us out of our myopic misery there’s not much hope.
don’t get me wrong, I like a party. vegas? south beach? new orleans? coastal Mediterranean beach, ibiza even? mhmmm, yup i’m in. but on a business dime? cmon boys and girls get over yourselves:
quick let’s get a vice magazine writer on these, they are just too good to pass up.
PS: thanks to adage.com for publishing these. seriously.
PPS: apparently, I’m not the only one.
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take your frat boy-creative director fart jokes to a whole new level.
http://adage.com/brightcove/lineup.php?lineup=1266084202
wow adage, reporting the news that matters, in real time..
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in the wake of George Carlin’s death, the twittersphere has dialed up in “tribute” to Carlin, similiar to the the dialogue that hit when Tim Russert died. though it started as a simple, and frankly confusing app for me (i didnt see much big picture application for it) Twitter continues to amaze in how it evolves to be much more than a conversational status billboard. in fact, in this case twitter became my “headline news” channel, as I heard the buzz from those I follow on Twitter before hitting my morning online news sources.
have a a look at this mornings reactions to George Carlin’s death on summize (the equivalent of google search for twitter posts):
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