Alternative Press Can’t Think So Traditionally When It Comes to Advertising
February 10, 2012 by Sarah Kotlova
Recently Centro’s Ben Pashman (@benpashman) and I were invited to the Association of Alternative Media’s Web and Mobile conference (#AANWeb) in San Francisco, to speak on Trends in Digital Ads.
We ducked out for a coffee beforehand to get our story straight and prepare for any lobbed tomatoes. Centro, of course, is a powerhouse purchaser of local digital media. But we wondered how popular we were going to be with the crowd. Many alt-weeklies have had a slow and difficult transition to the online world, caught between a technology investment rock and a Craigslist hard place. As the personals declined and local advertisers discovered social media and localized Google search results, attracting advertisers to online properties rose in priority for many alt-weeklies. Paychecks have to come from somewhere.
To make things harder, as the publications struggled to create a value proposition online, ad buying strategies are adjusting, as is ad delivery technology itself. Rich media, video pre-roll and other higher-engagement advertising now command premium space and dollars. Some Alt Weeklies are barely delivering on standard digital ad spaces. Effective website redevelopment requires funds, time and know-how (to say nothing of SEO). Strong web- and mobile-based resources for many local-need pillars had emerged fast: peer-based and/or curated reviews and recommendations for restaurants, entertainment, movies, events.
For the most part, the Alt Weeklies neither beat nor joined. Print publications remained their darling.
And now, Ben and I were here to discuss why they aren’t making enough money from their digital properties.
Sarah Kotlova Account Director
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An Unconventional Take on CES: Tracking, Television, Creativity and Power
January 19, 2012 by Sarah Kotlova
Last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was an overwhelming swirl of badge-wearing and suited humanity, packed tightly into the tradeshow floors and the Venetian Hotel.
The actual gadgets, roughly (and inaccurately) defined by me as: Beeping Things, Glowing Things, Loud Things, Connectivity Things, Things that Work with your iPhone/iPad, and Things that Cover your iPhone/iPad – I am generalizing here of course, but the mind does glaze under those florescent lights after a while – offered the usual cornucopia of slight functional improvements and rather more design improvements. The two trends I noted (or maybe just enjoyed) the most, however, were:
(1) You Can Now Monitor Everything. Especially Yourself.
Calories, location, physical activity (duration AND intensity), objects behind you in a car or in front of you on a ski slope, levels of milk and eggs in your refrigerator (thanks LG) … there are systems and devices to constantly monitor all these things now, and post them on Facebook (sorry Google+) while you’re at it. Clearly, the future is in carefully recording the metrics on our favorite subject: ourselves. I predict next year the trend will be how this information is best integrated with reality TV, which brings me to our second trend.
(2) Television is Dead (but Long Live Television)
Between continuing press and push for both Google TV and the Yahoo! Connected TV (now augmented further by the new Tom Hanks content deal), and the increasing connectivity of every device we have with large-scale whisper-thin LCD screens that hang on our (presumably) Architectural Digest-worthy walls … traditional television networks as content streamers have never seemed less relevant, while the creative format they devised continues to expand and develop.
Sarah Kotlova Account Director
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