Silly Shaped Bands are Traded & Collected all over the world.
http://pd.gophercentral.com/u/1095/c/186/a/618
------------------------------------------------------------
Media Perspectives - Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Where Are All the Addicts?
By Jeff Einstein
Lots of talk recently about media as addiction. And why
not? The dealers are in every room and on every street
corner, equipped with a pharmacopeia of high-tech drugs:
the Internet, smart phones, video games, iPads, and -- of
course -- HDTV, history's most perfect narcotic. It's not
for nothing that just about every digital device on the
planet now comes equipped with an LCD. Let's face it: the
media are reliable, ubiquitous, loyal, legal, don't talk
back, and are -- in comparison to other controlled
substances -- still pretty cheap. The isolating succor
and narcissistic narcosis that ride shotgun with media
addiction are the exact same basic rewards offered up by
heroin and crack cocaine. In short, the media are perfectly
addicting, and we're perfectly complicit in our addictions
to them.
How complicit? On average we spend about half our adult
lives and at least two thirds of our waking lives consuming
media. Try that with any other drug. With other narcotics
we typically only pay for what we consume. With media,
however, we're more than willing to pay for a month's
supply at a time, regardless of how much we consume. Seems
were eager to pay for more than we can ever consume just
for the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that
our next fix is forever at our fingertips ? at home and on
the road. Only with the media do we actually pay for access
to the drugs we don't consume. Now that's an addiction.
So where the hell are all the addicts? How can we all be
addicted to media if no one is an addict? Where have all
the addicts gone, and why is it so hard for marketers to
track them down, especially when the narcotics they crave
are so compellingly powerful and so utterly ubiquitous?
Let's try to interject some common sense. In observing our
behavior as media addicts what practical conclusions can
marketers draw? Apparently...
...everyone is addicted to video, both on and offline.
...no one is addicted to the ads.
...everyone and no one are the same exact addicts
Translation #1
No self-respecting media addict will go anywhere just for
the ads (except of course for advertising and marketing
executives -- who will go anywhere as long as there's a
free buffet and/or a paid bar). As media narcotics go,
advertising is to programming what aspirin is to
methamphetamine.
Translation #2
Media addiction, like all addictions, is a demand-side
phenomenon, not supply-side. So don't scale or otherwise
try to tamper with the supply. Look instead for opport-
unities to scale and exploit the demand -- because addict-
ion is all about the demand, and the demand side is
precisely where all the brand reach that disappeared in
recent years is hiding out in plain sight.
Translation #3
Now that media addiction is the legitimate rule rather
than the illegitimate exception, the traditional
advertising-as-intermediary model can no longer satisfy
and sustain the massive industry infrastructure -- the
legions of intermediary producers, distributors and
dealers -- required to traffic the actual narcotics and
otherwise service the addiction. Likewise the same
advertising-as-intermediary model can only fail to deliver
effective reach in scale large enough to satisfy the
demands of big brand advertisers -- because while everyone
wants their next media fix right away all the time, no one
wants the ads that pay the freight. This is precisely why
the out-of-pocket costs of media (although still low in
relation to other Class A, Schedule I substances) are
rising so rapidly: far too many intermediaries in the
production and distribution sides of the business.
Again, the demand-side nature of all addiction tells us
everything we need to know about how and where to reach
media addicts -- and with what. Stands to reason that of
all the potential audiences addicts would seem the easiest
to attract, not the hardest. In fact, we don't really need
to reach the addicts at all because they reach us instead.
They always do, but as media professionals (and the biggest
media addicts) we're apparently too addicted ourselves to
listen. Bottom line: if you want to attract media addicts,
cater to their addictions. Just don't expect them to do
anything else except a) devour the media narcotic you put
in front of them, and b) move on right away to the very
next fix, served up by you or someone else. Never try to
insert yourself or your ad message between a media addict
and a media addict's drug of choice, not when the only
thing that matters to the media addict is the very next
media fix. Everything else just gets in the way --
especially the ads ? and causes resentment.
There is of course a better way to put the media addiction
of others to work for you and your clients. If you want to
know the solution to scalable brand reach in the age of
pandemic media addiction, drop me a line and we'll talk --
addict to addict.
------------------------------------------------------------
About Jeff Einstein
Digital media pioneer Jeff Einstein is one-half of the
Brothers Einstein, a contrarian brand strategy and
communications boutique. The Brothers Einstein have
just announced the release of their Just BE Workshop,
a full-day, hands-on seminar designed to help senior
marketing executives lower the barriers to innovation
and restore common sense to its rightful place atop the
hierarchy of modern management tools.
------------------------------------------------------------
YOUR VIDEO SNACK BAR
Top Viewed Videos...
1. All the Single Babies
http://c.gophercentral.com/Icgl
2. Celebrities: Before and After Make-Up
http://c.gophercentral.com/lhPb
3. Amos N´ Andy - In the IRS Office
http://c.gophercentral.com/DVhQ
4. The D-Day Invasion
http://c.gophercentral.com/DDAx
5. The Spanish Civil War
http://c.gophercentral.com/3K42
6. The Human Slinky
http://c.gophercentral.com/Wwa9
------------------------------------------------------------
Questions? Comments? Email me at: quote (at) Quotes2u.com
------------------------------------------------------------
Follow Your Favorite GopherCentral Publications on Twitter:
http://www.gophertweets.com/ More Coming Soon!
------------------------------------------------------------