A Triple Treat for Publishers and Advertisers in 2011

Matthew Yorke

Monday, January 3, 2011 Late in the year we are inundated with holiday advertising and with Christian nativity plays in celebration of Christmas. The three ever-present wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gifts, so it seems like a good time to talk about three game-changing developments in the media and marketing worlds that also bear gifts.

Each development on its own is having a significant impact on media and marketing, but when all three are combined and interconnected they make for a transformation.

Let’s Get Down to Social Business
I have posted commentaries about the social Web for the past 18 months. In that time, social has moved from being dismissed as a consumer fad to being accepted as a mainstream form of communication without a place in business or b2b marketing, to a development with profound social and business implications.

Facebook has an estimated 600 million users, and Twitter processed 25 billion tweets in 2010 and at last count has 175 million users globally. A recent eMarketer report noted that in 2011, four out of five U.S. businesses with more than 100 employees will use social media marketing. It’s part of the mainstream discussion, and next year we will see the emergence of social business.

The biggest change is how we consume content. In a social world, content finds us and we in turn comment on it and/or broadcast information to our social graph or networks. The significance of this cannot be understated and is partly why such lofty valuations are attached to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and, most recently, Groupon.

A World After PCs
Mobile is here, it’s here! How many times have we heard that in the past? Too many times to count. But 2010 was a breakout year and 2011 and beyond will show even more staggering growth numbers. Mobile encompasses so many different elements and opportunities, it’s hard to know where to start, but here are just a few startling insights and predictions from IDC: Mobile advertising in the U.S. will grow by 120% to $2 billion, more than 1 million apps will be available on iTunes and Android devices and people will download 25 billion apps generating in excess of $12 billion in revenue.

IDC estimates more than 330 million smartphones and more than 42 million tablet devices will ship in 2011. These are staggering numbers with profound implications for how we receive and consume content. Layer in geo-location services such as Foursquare and Gowalla, sharing offers and locations with Facebook and Twitter in real time, and you get a sense of just what this means for brands, marketers and media companies.

So in 2010 mobile finally arrived, and in 2011 users are going to spend more time with these devices, and marketing dollars will follow. The PC era is coming to an end; mobile and apps are coming of age.

Just-in-Time Data and Advertising
Last year was the year of data for many of the Madison Avenue cognoscenti. The capability to collect user data, attach third-party information to it and build rich profiles of Web users came of age. But data collection is only the beginning. All this information allows the advertiser to then target and buy individuals in a real-time bidding (RTB) process. Quite literally, as a page loads an algorithm is calculating how many attributes a person represents, the context of the site and the likely performance of a specific ad against a person’s profile, and the consumer’s attention (eyeballs) goes to the highest advertiser bidder in a matter of seconds. This has enormous implications for media companies, brands, individuals and government officials as they consider regulations around privacy and personal information. But this is only one side of data, and it’s data that stitches together social, mobile and real-time bidding.

In a world of tablets, mobile devices and apps, publishers and brands are hyper-connected to their audiences and can understand what people are reading, sharing and commenting on at any time. Publishers can constantly personalize offerings. In a world of social connections, users are sharing, broadcasting and creating content that supplements editorial and advertising. In a world of data, smart publishers and advertisers, all the information on consumption, sharing, tweeting, social connections and locations provides an unparalleled layer of intelligence. Content and messaging are delivered instantly to create greater reader interest and drive advertising performance.

2010 was the year of social, mobile and data; 2011 will be the year when all three come together for impressive results and interesting debate.

Minsider columnist Matthew Yorke is president, IDG Strategic Marketing Services.

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