Feeding the Beast… Live at AD:TECH

I presented at AD:TECH in San Francisco yesterday on the "Feeding the Beast"  RSS, Data Feeds, and Even More" panel.

Was lead by Charlene Li of Forrester who knows her stuff.

Also on the panel was fellow entrepreneur and good guy Mark Carlson of Simplefeed.

Not a single person was blogging in the audience… that’s probably the best, "State of the Ad Industry" observation I have.

With that said, there was a tremendous collective open mind to RSS and blogs.

Which means we’re not at the tipping point yet (the stage where everyone knows about RSS and blogs but haven’t done anything about it), but at least we’re past that ugly "blank-stare-that’s-not-important-can-I-sell-you-a-buggy-whip?" stage.

 

Who Wins Between Google, Y!, MSN, and AOL?

Such an easy question:  They ALL do. 

Online ad spend was only about 2% of overall spend last year… about $10 billion.

Given how hands-down better online ad spending is vs. offline ad spending, this percentage will grow to 10% within the next five years with its eyes closed.

Which means these four will have their hands full just divvying up the extra $40 billion per year being thrown at them.

Sweet.

 

Why Offline Can’t Compete with Online

Preparing for an Apr 25th AD:TECH conference panel.

I sound like a broken record:  Offline just won’t be able to compete with online in the future.

Why?

Business model. 

When things are trackable, you can create performance-based, micro-adjustable business models.

These business models are no brainers:  There’s no risk:  You only pay if it performs… and you can tweak and tune at almost no cost.

Compare that with your typical pay-for-it-all-before-you-ever-see-how-it-performs offline ad spend.  TONS of risk.

Data point:  Me. 

We’ve done quite a lot of ad buying in the last two decades. 

Anyone remember print magazine bingo cards?  What a joke, they were the worst.  Anyone ever really try to measure radio and TV spots?  Slow and imprecise at best.  Lousy and unmanageable at worst.

If I had today’s online options available to me then, I wouldn’t have spend a penny on offline.  Just not worth it.

Since Google, Y!, and MSN are all going through the roof, there are obviously other ad buyers that feel the same way.

 

Divisible By 23

Hey, I’m divisible by 23 again today.  Weird to be approaching half life, all feels the same.

 

The Worst Case Makes the Best Example

Can you imagine if you ever got on a couponer’s email list? 

I can’t stand them in newspapers, why would I want them in my email? 

Especially if I couldn’t get them to stop.  Brrrrr.

But they are undeniably popular.  Want to sign up for safe, SPAM-free coupons?

Here you go, click here for an RSS feed dedicated to coupons.

Unlike an email mechanism, you can sign up with this RSS feed with total confidence that you can stop the coupon flow any time you like… now that’s what I mean by the customer being in control.