Is there "new media" in blogs and wikis?

I spoke with a friend in the advertising industry about "blogs and wikis" and his comment was something like: '... a few customers once in a while ask us to write content for blogs when they need a message and they ask them to "write content" ... but, doing blogs is a lot of work and it's expensive... ' In general the "established media" world sees the Internet as a "new media" - most think of it as not really ready for "prime time". To some extent they are right, print, electronic and even direct marketing is still running at full steam... and a train moving in its tracks at full steam is hard to stop and harder to turn.
I have been looking at blogs and wikis for examples of serious and useful marketing work. At this point I am not looking for a pattern or a "method" from anyone out there, I think it's too early for that kind of information to be readily available. But, there are many examples of people who do not see the "blogs and wikis" as "new media". Why do I think that "new media" is not a useful model for what people think the Internet can do? Because this seems like a what had happened in the past, the history of distant past and more recent history. It seems to me that most people who are not using the Internet as a primary form of marketing are not going to see the value in the "new media" until its too late (for them). So these people are not the ones to look for guidance. But for people who either can't afford "old media", or are starting to market a new product or with a new effort, it makes sense to start with the Internet. That is why I am looking at the blogs, wikis, newletters and quick edit pages (i.e. google pages, myspace, etc). The idea is to see how essentially direct marketing is used by marketing managers DIRECTLY. I think that we can find good examples so this is going to be my effort in the next few weeks. (I am looking for equivalent of "direct" marketing but other forms of marketing is also OK) If you have any examples or comments, please write to me. THANKS !

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Let's get to the next part, learning from history and seeing how the big guys used similar situations to create big products. To look at historical examples, I chose to look at an older shift in technology and marketing (40 - 50 years); I became aware of just now, the story of Playboy. Now, some of you will not like this example, but it will quickly illustrate my point. Hugh Hefner started Playboy as a fluke, not exactly sure that it would work and what it would turn out to be. There were all kind of objectionable remarks about the "new venture". Some said that Playboy will not be able to find girls to pose, that did not turned out to be a problem at all. Anyway, let's move beyond the Playboy "idea" - what Hugh Hefner did with magazines at the time is what the Internet is doing to "media". Hugh Hefner figured out that magazines is not a new way to get the "message" out, but a whole new way to get a "new message" out. Actually he created a new "product". The magazine was not a "shrunk" book or an monthly update in a specific area, it WAS THE PRODUCT. As magazines became cheaper to print and mail, as the acceptance of more risque content and as men demanded or 'accepted' more sexy and personal content. In hindsight this is easy to analyze, but I believe the the Playboy story is not about planning and "designing" as much as a gut feeling - jump into the waters without thinking too much. In today's more accepted Internet "self publishing" world, we have a very similar situation.
I hope that the Playboy example was not too vague or controversial, specially if you are offended by Hefner's content. But it's a lesson well learned. Next time I will write about Blogger.com and a few other more 'recent' examples. Using technology, shift in opinions or social norms and economic / product capability. I look at successful products and services because they usually have a good lesson to teach. I think that as we go about using current technologies in a changing environment learning from others is one way to think creatively. Also, it's a way of keeping a better perspective. It's always crucial to make sure we do not miss an opportunity to go after a market or capture a better competitive position. More about this aspect of newsletter/blog/wiki/web marketing in the coming stories.

Marketing blog: advertising in round about ways

I break up the tasks of marketing into three general categories. As the title suggests:

• Advertising: writing and showing attractive info, usually for new products.
• Informing: factual writing like technical and consumer information.
• Technologizing: using technologies in marketing

These are broad categories, but each needs it's own discussion. Let's talk about advertising then cover the other two later. Adversiting on the web is a little tricky, there is a sense that everything on the web is "free". Some people define "free" in terms of actual dollars: the information, content and services are simply free. Others define "free" in terms of "freedom of speach and expression. Either way, the sense of "free" tends to make advertisers confused.

This sense of confusion makes advetising on the web a little harder than in other media. But this does not mean it's THAT difficult. There is another issue which is quite different than other media forms: the target audiance is not just where you plan them to be. They are not in "one" place. There are lots of leading sites where certain buyers are found, but there are so many "other" places to find them. But again, it's somewhat possible to solve this problem.

Let's take the first issue of "free". If buyers expect free content, then they get it. Amazon.com is a great example. You get all the information about a book. You also get search capability on a huge amount of books, probably the easiest searchable database on the web (possibly the most popular). But, overall, Amazon is one big advertising site. Take a look at a Ogilvy on Advertising (Amazon) the top bar is access to Amazon related shopping. Besides the picture of the book cover, the first screen full is essentially advertising on how to buy the book (used, new, with a companion, "one button"). Go down another screen full: "customers who bought this book also bought", finally reviews and "product details". If this is not one big advertisment, I don't know what is. Granted, by the time a buyer gets this close to a book, there is a good probability that he is interested in the book. But Amazon has also the image of a book database. I expect Amazon to be a place to browse books, to read reviews and reader's comments and that is one aspect of Amazon. The advertising aspect is so subtle and integrated into the page, that after a short while, I simply forget it's "advertising".

Let's look at another type of advertising, the price comparison and "category specific blogs". Gizmo is a simple blog with no pretense. The trick is to get onto the blog if you are the product's marketing manager. It's a matter of finding the right site or blog, then crafting the right message. If you don't get in, why not build your own blog? This way you can showcase your own products, then add similar products. Two sites jump right out:
Lets Go Digital and Audio Cubes . Both are simple advertising with lots of info. Lets Go Digital is a price comparison, but somewhat disguised with detailed descriptions and specifications. If you really wanted to know what photographers think, go to Photo.net . A fewer number of models, but much more user contribution. On the audio side, a great site that seem to be helpful, but is really a sales driven HeadRoom , comes off as your shopping "advisor" and what about headphones that they don't carry?

Well, as you can see, advertising comes in many ways on the web. You can do your own with a simple blog. I wonder if there is anyone out there that would like to work on an advertising driven site. Any takers?

What's "New Marketing" all about ???

Hello, thanks for wondering into my space ... The idea of "New Marketing" just started to ferment into my work about two months ago. I tried to explain a product manager what he can do with a wiki. He was vaguely familiar with Wikipedia as a place to get information. But he didn't realize that all that content came from a large number of independent "experts" (unpaid volunteers). I tried to make an analogy to the software world. But the message was not getting across. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that understanding a technology is one thing. Benefiting from it, is a bigger step.

So, what is "new marketing"? My definition is using current tools to do old tasks better. AND doing new things that could not have been done before. -- For example, with Blogs, one can post any kind of opinion and information without the need for newspapers and magazines. For a long time, a marketer's job was to get things into the "trade press". Notice, that in a short time, the trade press changed because of blogs (approximately 2002 ~ 2004). Now magazines write about blogs (usually by referrals). Mostly because blogs are current, can hold more information and can be used to link reference and related information easily. Again, technology changes many thing, this is not a new phenomena.

It seems to me that very few managers and executives in marketing are using blogs. Marketing people always have things to say. They love to talk to customers that know their product. They love to talk to developers that create new products. They love to talk to researchers with new technologies. They love to talk to sales people about what is going on with the "market". They love to talk to market researchers about "statistics" - what is going on "big picture" ... OK, enough with "they love to talk ..." - you get the point.

This brings up the final point in this posting. If you are ahead of the competition with the use of the "new" tools (I call them current tools), you can be ahead of the competition. New marketing is doing things that were done before better. It's also about beating the competition without more resources. It's about being smart and pushing the envelope of tool use to your benefit.