In our most recent Idea Email, we compared annual predictions to card tricks: They’re entertaining, but really not that helpful, especially when you learn how the trick works. Forecasting is a better approach. Rather than focus on the certainty of a single event as an attempt at prediction, the goal of forecasting should be to discover and track today’s seemingly minor currents that appear to merge with one another and become part of a river of change.
It’s that time again. Business publications and websites are filled with predictions for the coming year. Unfortunately, predictions are more about entertainment than enlightenment.
In addition to Thanksgiving, there’s another event this weekend: Small Business Saturday. We’ve been close observers of the promotion since its creation six years ago.
By Rex Hammock
Recently, the letter “R” on my laptop computer stopped working. As the letter is the first in my name and @R is my Twitter username, I fully expected—and sure enough received—a lot of (r)ibbing about the “damage to my ego key.”
Recently, we suggested that ad-blocking technology isn’t necessary because our brains are already wired to do it. In many ways, this kind of “wiring” benefits marketers as it keeps people who aren’t interested in a product from clicking on the pay-per-click ad. It’s this brain wiring that causes someone to realize that every car on the road is a dark-gray Honda Civic—something they didn’t know until they started thinking about purchasing a dark-gray Honda Civic.
The current Idea Email explains how and why ad-blocking isn’t just a browser plug-in hack. Blocking ads is also a multi-billion dollar business. It’s based on the notion that advertising doesn’t always need to be at the transaction intersection when dollars are exchanged for content. Oftentimes, customers become so overwhelmed by the crush of ads on the internet and traditional media, they are more than willing to pay media companies for the chance to view (listen to, watch, read) ad-free content.
And many media companies have learned that there are billions of dollars in potential revenue in allowing people to pay for ad-free content, rather than subjecting them to personalized ads or the sheer magnitude of ads that appear on a web page.
Here are some examples of ad-free content providers and how they make money (or hope to).
Google just completed a major redesign of its logo. Its new logo will likely be ranked as a significant branding event of the year. In the long term, however, the new logo won’t have much impact on the company or its brand.
You may already be an expert on “ad blocking,” the current controversy swirling around the corners of the web where you find those obsessed with digital marketing and media. It’s not a new topic, merely the latest chapter of a long-running debate that sprang up again when Apple released its most recent version of its mobile operating system (iOS). The newest version allows mobile app developers to sell (or give away) apps that suppress online ads in the way browser extensions have worked for years.
With the growing awareness of opportunities the Internet has created for companies to use various types of media and content to communicate directly with their customers, we are often asked these two questions related to how and where a company should start its content marketing efforts.
We’ve recently been involved in a project that includes the types of advertorial or sponsored content known as “native advertising.” During the project, we’ve been asked, “Is native advertising considered content marketing?” Our reply: “Some people may argue it’s not content marketing, but no one can say it’s not content used for marketing.”