The internet, an equal opportunity advertising platform

October 28th, 2009 | Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking about how visual storytelling in TV, movies and advertising is starting to mirror what happened to the music world with the collapse of the big labels. But I’ve been struggling with how to articulate it, especially as it relates to advertising and the changes in distribution of ads to web centric folks like myself.

A brilliant slide deck, Digital Strangelove, by David Gillespie, which Fred Wilson republished, helped put additional context to my thinking. Simply (and I paraphrase)—if TV and film are just video. And newspapers, books and magazines just text. And radio and albums just sound. And if distribution is free (which it is) then the game has brand new rules. Which it has.

The networks no longer have a lock on TV content. Nor the studios and theater chains on movies. Then the concept of a broadcast ad or commercial changes dramatically. In a phrase, ”Democratization drives disintermediation”, which means that there is equal access for all to the transport pipe and the customers. This is empowering change for all of us.

How this popped for me is that I don’t watch TV but I’m seeing all the latest ads by Google, Apple, Microsoft, whomever without ever tuning into a TV network. My blogs and news feeds lay out the news (many in video) by my interest categories and I watch what grabs me. Advertisements from corporations. Garage band music videos. An iPhone video of my friend’s dog chewing on his head. Whatever. They are all equally accessible and have free distribution.

Goodbye network strangleholds.  Distribution pipes are free. Access to groups is free. This doesn’t mean that corporations like Apple for the iPhone or Miele for a vacuum cleaner, can’t communicate with me through video, that is advertise to me. Not at all. They just need to be interesting.  In categories I care about and find me in non-intrusive ways.

I like this. Visual storytelling (that is, video) is no longer restricted to the ‘distribution have’s’ because we all have access. Tools to create are ubiquitous and getting easier to use. And individuals and the successful companies are getting more creative in telling a story. They have to because no one is captive and the playing field is leveling at least in creativity and distribution.

I don’t think that my experiences are ahead of the crowd here. And in the next year as Boxee and other systems drive control of the TV screen to our laptops, this paradigm will become even more widespread.

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  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Fantastic take away from the presentation and your instincts Arnold. I don't even see a separation of text, music or video. To me they're all just bits with different interpreters on the far end. Your content consumption method is still ahead of the curve, but I would guess millions now share your experience, maybe more world wide.

    Sharp folks have recognized the disruption of attention monopolies years back. The Internet has allowed us to reroute around old road blocks. It's the underlying nature of the net itself that allows this form of social/information efficiency. We don't restrict the type of data that flows through the net, except when it's malicious (malware etc). Many of us have to learn or relearn how to find what we actually like and or need to know and experience.

    The lack of training wheels scares people, I find it absolutely refreshing!

  • http://arnoldwaldstein.com awaldstein

    Mark, thanks. You touch on something else here that's been percolating. Social and information efficiencies are linked inextricably in some way on the real time web. If data transfer is democratized, then communities and social efficiencies can happen at faster rates in new ways. That I think is a key item behind social media. Interesting.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Fantastic take away from the presentation and your instincts Arnold. I don't even see a separation of text, music or video. To me they're all just bits with different interpreters on the far end. Your content consumption method is still ahead of the curve, but I would guess millions now share your experience, maybe more world wide.

    Sharp folks have recognized the disruption of attention monopolies years back. The Internet has allowed us to reroute around old road blocks. It's the underlying nature of the net itself that allows this form of social/information efficiency. We don't restrict the type of data that flows through the net, except when it's malicious (malware etc). Many of us have to learn or relearn how to find what we actually like and or need to know and experience.

    The lack of training wheels scares people, I find it absolutely refreshing!

  • http://arnoldwaldstein.com awaldstein

    Mark, thanks. You touch on something else here that's been percolating. Social and information efficiencies are linked inextricably in some way on the real time web. If data transfer is democratized, then communities and social efficiencies can happen at faster rates in new ways. That I think is a key item behind social media. Interesting.