Busy program for cross-media thinkers

February and March promise to be busy period for cross-media researchers and planners of cross-media plans. FIPP organises its second Research Forum in Amsterdam on February 15/16. Topics relate to measurement of readership, evidence of magazines and internet integration, multi-channel measurement and other.
The Online Publishers Association organises in March its Forum for the Future and will cover subjects that have to do with competitiveness, innovation, cross-media and advertising industry.
At CeBit in March FIPP will organise the first digital conference for magazine publishers. The Conference is dedicated to questions related to the online and off-line integration of magazine brands.

100 years of popular culture in print

With 440 pages, at almost 2,5 kilo, with hundreds of covers, showing work of some of the most respected artists, describing the history of style magazine Vogue this book is the perfect gift. It is a beautiful mirror of the changes in society and popular culture and also of media enterpreneurship.

Germans prefer Print

Over thousand Internet users in Germany have been asked about their reading and media preferences. two-fifth of them read a printed edition of a newspaper and one-fifth calls up a website of a newspaper regulary. Two-thirds of the Internet users say they prefer the paper version over the digital, only 20% say that the print version will not play an important role within ten years.

Thinking about skiing

I just saw these nicely designed ads for a US ski resort. As the time for wintersports is approaching I'm already thinking of these red and black coloured slopes. The ads show me the perfect line. Enjoy the glühwein!

Forecasts and good news about direct mail

As the year is ending more consultancies are already concluding the year. The Winterberry Group in the USA states that 2006 was a year of robust growth of 7,5% compared to 2005 estimates. For 2007 the Group projects that growth will continue to outpace the growth of the traditional "above-the-line" investments. Some of the trends they identify are: complex, high-volume multichannel campaigns become the industry standard, delivery costs will drive need for data hygiene, agencies will integrate analytics and consumer targeting services, media-mix reallocation will threaten direct mail share, digital print applications will grow and catalogue marketers will reduce the number of pages but not the circulation.

Online expenditures drive forecast 2006/07

Carat - the media services group - announced last week that global ad expenditure will grow 6 percent this year, which comes from 5,7% forecasted in June this year. Online media are increasing in all regions, in the USA with 20 percent. Some markets demonstrate interesting developments. In Spain new formats in radio, TV, new digital entrants and the free newspaper titles boost growth. The UK shows a very different change, TV ad revenue will decline with 7% in 2006, Internet expenditures will grow with 40% and will represent a larger share than magazines this year. Internet share represents 5,2% of global ad expenditures in 2006, up from 4,3% in 2005.

Business media advertising revenue steady

The American Business Media recent figures on ad pages and revenues over the period September 2005-2006 shows a slight increase of 1,11% and 0,9% respectively. Business media are often seen as vulnerable to online magazines. The stable performance over 2005-2006 indicates the strength of the printed channel for readers and advertisers.

Will print media create blue oceans?

Last week during the International Marketing Congress in Belgium I listened to the presentation of Professor Chan Kim on the concept of Blue Ocean. For those who are not familiar with this concept, it is based upon the idea that instead of competing head-to-head with rivals companies make them irrelevant by defining a new market space. And this new market space is like a Blue Ocean, in comparison to the Red Ocean that is coloured red through the bloodshed of heavy competition.
It would be interesting to see how this strategy applies to the media world. Consumers have become more selective and advertisers even more focussed on accountability, which makes it for players in the media market even more diffcult to survive. The entire media industry is in great flux and it will take time and quite some courage to make the necessary changes and strategic moves. Technology is defining the pace and the direction of change today; the web 2.0 defines where we go today, not Mr. Murdoch. The billboard industry in the USA is flourishing because of the integration of the traditional and new media; publishers are trying out different models of integration and so do TV channels. Will content in the future be a branded product and delivered via different channels owned by independent media companies or will consumers get and organise the news? News covered in print, on the web, on TV, on your PSP, on your mobile. Will the consumer survive this "always on" society without a media-free space? Will the medium still be the message or will the branded message take over the role of the medium? It is time for business and communication visionaires, sociologists, marketeers and psychologists to give their input and develop strategies that will create this blue ocean.

Posters selling people

Posters are probably the oldest media used to sell people. Because of their public character it was and still is the ideal way to express views and ideas to a broad group of people. The Dutch have recently opened a website that presents an overview of 2500 political posters. Overviews by type of election or by party offer an interesting perspective on messaging, style and "zeitgeist" through the last 40 years. I have noticed some very nice nostalgic posters for De Boerenpartij and PSP. The site will without doubt become a popular source of research for professional communicators and students.

A CEO blog is part of PR

Earlier this week I was invited to a presentation by Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book. It struck me that she and the panel were of the opinion that corporate blogging should not be part of corporate PR. CEO's and workers should comply with guidelines set forward by the company, but are free in their choice of subjects. As blogs are personal and representing the company company bloggers should not be limited by company strategies is the argument. Blogs are conversations with customers, interested people and other stake-holders. Personal blogs of CEO's can paint a personal view of the company and might give the company a more human face. The blogs can also touch on subjects that are on the corporate agenda, or could lead to a corporate agenda . For these reasons I think blogs should be part of a corporate approach even when the point-of-view is personal and coming from the CEO. This is not to say that the PR department should write the blog, the CEO should continue doing this, but with direction of the PR department. (A friend of mine told me the other day they have eight people working at his internationally operating company that work on software and systems to eavesdrop everything that is being published on the company on certain subjects and people. Nothing remains hidden for those who search for it. A huge task for PR and CEO's to remain on top). By the way, Ben this was a great party and nice people.