If you live in the US, and haven't yet heard, the U.S. government is encouraging K-12 schools to adopt interactive digital textbooks within the next five years. Are we ready? I don't think so. There is a battle of the tablets going on as I type this post. Traditional, "old-school" textbook publishers appear to be key players in this game, but I am not sure if they have the know-how to create interactive content that is fresh, "touchable", engaging, and meaningful to young people. A boring textbook, tweaked tweaked for a bit of interactivity and multimedia content will not suffice. Feel free to take your time and visit the links I've shared so far. I'm still reflecting on what I've learned so far and will share more of my thoughts in future related posts. Leaders Discuss Transition to Digital Textbooks The LEAD commission
I came across one of my old posts while putting together More Tablets, More Mobile, More Social. On The Media's The Facebook Show, Adobe's Social 'Metrics, Not Myths" Campaign. When I wrote the following post in December of 2009, the first iPad had not been released. Google Plus was just a rumor. Facebook was much smaller, worldwide. Even though many things have changed, the post rings true: From a Post-Wimp Perspective: What Happens When Post-Mass Market Goes to Market? Bob Garfield's insightful video, and more...
I realize that working for the public good has prevented me from developing a thirst for marketing competitiveness. I don't have a greedy bone in my body. The only reason that I've developed a slight interest in advertising and marketing over the past few years is my interest in technology and how our society has been transformed by recent changes. Everyone has a cell phone, everyone wants an iPhone, everyone expects that technology will help us to meet our social, political, financial, health, education, environmental, and humanitarian needs, right?
What is happening to our "mainstream" cornerstones?
By mainstream, I mean traditional newspapers, magazines, network television, cable, and brochure-like websites. All of a sudden, reporters are running to take graduate classes in multi-media journalism, a domain previously "owned" by network TV 10-15 years ago. Newspapers and magazines are now web-based, your favorite radio and television program have their own websites, and just about every one is on MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.
The Web is easily accessed, ubiquitous, running on SmartPhones and iPhones, netbooks, and now, e-readers, right from your pocket, purse, or bag.
Ten years ago, if you had a job coding for a tech company, there wasn't an expectation that you'd have to hone your writing skills to maintain a blog, and learn how to produce short video clips to promote your work and the work of your company. If you preferred NOT to be open and social, it was fine! Now, you are probably just holding on. Maybe.
What inspired this post is a video of a presentation by Bob Garfield, an ad critic and essayist for Advertising Age. a magazine I interact with online. He is the co-host of NPR's On The Media program, and has a lot of insight regarding advertising trends and so forth. He is also hilarious. If you are viewing this in a family setting, know that Mr. Garfield uses a few "bad" words and quite a number of data and financial statistics to make his point. No traditional media institution is untouched. An eye opener. Worth every 34+ minute!
"Bob Garfield...forcasts the disintegration of mass advertising structures that have worked in perfect symbiosis for 400 years and prescribes "listenomics" as the way for brands to thrive in the digital, post-advertising age. He warns that all formerly top-down institutions cannot dictate to consumers with advertising through mass media as before, but must use digital tools to forge relationships with them--no longer seeing people as piggy banks, or eyeballs, or votes, but as genuine stakeholders in their enterprise. Amid the ruins of mass media,the choice for business is stark: listen or perish. Learn more at thechaosscenario.net."
(For those of you following the postWIMP discussion, you might be interested in looking at the post on the chaos scenario.net blog: The Problem with Acronyms. What a coincidence!)
Bob Garfield's insights were foreshadowed by the "Prosumer" video from a couple of years ago:
Google and Yahoo are getting it, and demonstrate foresight by providing free Wi-Fi service in urban environments.
Below is a short video clip of Dana Spiegel, the NYCwireless Executive Director, about Yahoo's sponsorship of free Wi-Fi in Times Square in New York City:
I've been thinking about giants like Google and Facebook and how they have been slow to figure out how to adapt to the rapid adoption of mobile technologies, such as tablets and smartphones, among their users/ad viewers/consumers. Social media marketing is a somewhat uncharted territory, and the landscape is much different from the "push" media environment of television in days past. Here is what came across my path today on this topic: This morning I was delighted to listen to "The Facebook Show". produced by On The Media. I've embedded it below for your listening pleasure: THE FACEBOOK SHOW When I got home, I turned on the TV as I put away groceries, and viewed the Adobe's recent ad, "The Slap", which is meant to convince people that there is a way to measure the ROI of ad campaigns utilizing social media. It is part of the Metrics Not Myths series. I've embedded a few of the episode below. (I'd rather see the creative effort focus on an anti-bullying campaign, but that is another story.) Warning, watching these ads while contemplating digital media consultants and marketing buzzwords might be painful! "Today, we launched a brand new marketing campaignwe’re calling “Metrics, not myths.” Our approach is to identify top myths about digital marketing that plague brands, agencies, chief marketing officers and CEOs and turn them on their head — with irony, humor, a provocative point of view and proof." - Adobe
The Slap BS Detector
Buzzwords that get zapped: Bigger picture, ripple effect, go for the key influencers, at the end of the day, halo effect, brand recognition, fine tune engagements, 360 view of the customer, cross segment synergies, likes, closed loop marketing, search, classification of our brand, SEO, click-through rates, make it go viral.....
I will be devoting a few upcoming posts to tablets, larger smartphones, and other mobile computing devices. I'll be hearing from the folks at Stantum later today. This morning I woke up and turned on the TV as I was getting ready for work, and the first thing I saw on my local station was this cute family-focused ad for the new Google Chromebook, which at $249.00, is affordable: I especially like the scene were a toddler stomps on a Chromebook left on the floor.
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