Convergence Conversation

I'm eagerly awaiting my review copy of a new book entitled "Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide to Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand" by Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi. This book builds on the foundation of "Get Content, Get Customers" that Joe Pulizzi co-wrote with Newt Barrett at the outset of the content marketing phenomenon, back in early 2008.

Today, I'm sensing that savvy marketers everywhere are ready to move their budgets away from under-performing advertising, to something that's potentially more appealing to their customers. More...

Advertising on mobile devices and mobile money services are making strong inroads among the growing affluent segments of China's population, according to the latest market study by ABI Research.

This perhaps counters the conventional thinking that consumer response to mobile advertising -- and the use of mobile devices for financial transactions -- are limited to the mature North American and European markets.

ABI's online survey of 1,000 Chinese consumers was conducted in March-April 2011. Note, however, that given the online approach to the survey, the sample is entirely drawn from the technology-enabled part of the Chinese population. More...

It’s been estimated that 11m people in Britain are disabled, with around 7m of those being of working age. What’s more, there’s a significant (and rising) number of older people who may not think of themselves as disabled but who might have difficulty with their sight or hearing. So, at a time when an increasing number of contact points are being moved online, it’s clear that unless accessibility is embedded into communication strategies, organisations may be unwittingly creating a digital divide.

In December 2010, the British Standards Institution (BSI) launched a code of practice on web accessibility. More...

Here is a list of the conversations that we are planning for 2011.

The invitation for 05 May, including all details, will soon be circulated, but meanwhile please do let us know if you are interested in speaking at any of these sessions?

• Thursday 05 May:
  Data - transparency, obesity, and opportunity!
• Thursday 26 May: 
  Access not control.  Music, video and publishing 2.0
• Thursday 30 June: 
  3D, evolution or revolution?
• Thursday 28 July: 
  Advertising 2.0
• Thursday 25 August: 
  4G
• Thursday 29 September:
  mPayment and location based services
• Thursday 27 October:

More...

Online advertising was predicted to gain share of U.S. marketer spending by more than 10 percentage points between 2009 and 2015. However, the current spending on digital media -- including internet and mobile -- has not yet risen significantly, according to the latest assessment by eMarketer.

Among the major media of television, internet, radio, mobile, newspapers and magazines, U.S. adults still spend the most time each day with TV. eMarketer estimates adults watched television for 42.9 percent of the time they spent each day with those media in 2010, and ad dollars align closely, at 42.7 percent. More...

Brand marketers in a variety of different industries are beginning to accelerate their multimedia production and distribution efforts. They're acting more like non-fiction storytellers and commercial publishers, as they create new forms of digital content.

This established trend was one of the significant themes at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) 2011. In addition, the early-adoption of Transmedia Storytelling techniques -- by a relative few forward-looking organizations -- was the noteworthy emerging theme.

I attended several conference sessions on these topics. More...

Marketers value engagement with their content marketing efforts, because it indicates that people actually care enough to interact. However, according to a recent eMarketer report, while engagement is compelling, 10 marketers might define it in 10 different ways.

As the interactive ad format that most attracts brand marketers, much is riding on internet video advertising -- mainly their marketing budget ROI. But are consumers really paying attention to online video ads, when most say they avoid or ignore them on broadcast television channels?

As spending for online video rises and takes a bigger slice of the display ad pie, marketers must be confident that they are spending wisely. More...

comScore released new market study data showing that 171 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in January -- for an average of 14.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in nearly 4.9 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month.

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in January with 144.1 million unique viewers. VEVO captured the #2 ranking with 51.0 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 48.7 million viewers. Viacom Digital took the fourth position with 48.1 million viewers, while AOL, Inc. More...

Viewing traditional television content is central to mainstream America's media day. But the internet is already having a profound effect on U.S. consumer viewing habits and the proliferation of devices is altering their video consumption behavior.

eMarketer estimates that in 2011, 68.2 percent of U.S. internet users, or 158.1 million people, will be watching video content online each month. By 2015, that figure will increase to 76 percent of internet users -- or 195.5 million people.

In the same period, online video advertising spending will surge from $1.97 billion to $5.71 billion. More...

Sadly the watcher in not at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, although from London it would seem that the volume of announcements is best perhaps filtered through the lens of distance.  In any event through the magic of twitter #mwc … Continue reading →