Publishing 2.0 article on Media 2.0

This article appeared on my del.icio.us homepage in the "Popular" section this morning.  It is a really interesting overview of what may be happening in the world of brand media.  Some larger advertisers are starting to realize that they can use guerrilla marketing tactics via MySpace at really low cost (note: for more on guerrilla marketing tactics, see my recent post on Ecko’s recent brilliant campaign).  I’ve cited this example before (see article here) — here’s the MySpace page for the Honda Element (and even more bizarre, here’s the MySpace page for a local Honda dealership from Cedar Rapids, Iowa!).

If the old saying is true: "I know that 50% of my media spend works, I just don’t know which 50%", and if it is really true that the web and new media provide higher accountability for media spend, then I think that this Publishing 2.0 article is right that there will be a slowdown of media spend — in traditional media (television, print, etc). 

HOWEVER, as the lines blur between advertisers and publishers, thus lowering the barrier to entry for advertisers to get their messsages out by publishing (via MySpace, blogs, etc — see the GM blog as an example), these new "publishers" are also going to start advertising to get eyeballs and people to their MySpace pages, blogs, etc.  They don’t need to spend $10 million on a Madison Ave agency for a 30 second TV spot, but they need to invest in search advertising and performance marketing to attract users to their new published pages.  And these new forms of advertising provide such a higher level of accountability than the older formats, as advertisers get better and better results, they’ll spend more and more.  It will be interesting to see where these spending levels net out over time compared to traditional media spend.

I love being a part of all of this and seeing how it will play out.

Update: I just read the NYTimes article that Publishing 2.0 references.  There are some great quotes about MySpace:

To expand ad sales, especially to big brands, Mr. Levinsohn plans to
supplement the MySpace staff with a second sales force linked to the
Fox TV sales department. He wants to expand one of Mr. DeWolfe’s
advertising ideas — turning advertisers into members of the MySpace
community, with their own profiles, like the teenagers’ — so that the
young people who often spend hours each day on MySpace can become
"friends" with movies, cellphone companies and even deodorants. Young
people can link to the profiles set up for these goods and services, as
they would to real friends, and these commercial "friends" can even
send them messages — ads, really, but of a whole new kind.

The best way to get, say, a television show in front of the MySpace
audience is not to cut a deal with a programming czar at a Hollywood
restaurant, but to win the hearts, one by one, of thousands of members
who will display the show to all of their friends.

Mr. Levinsohn calls MySpace the antiportal. "It’s not about a central
hub, because that’s not where things are going," he said. "The under-30
set wants choice. It’s not about one destination; it’s about 65
million."

Technorati tags: media, advertising, myspace

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