- Martin Lindstrom

Wanted to share with you Martin Lindstrom’s presentation on the use of Social media and understand, why he believes it is only a question of how and when brands are going to start using it.

What would then happen to the print media, for example? Or is it time for the publishing houses to consider instead of investing in better printing facilities to invest time in developing further their online presence with interactive online editions you can download and read at your convenience from the screen of your smart phone?

Should we consider the internet then as just another media where we can advertise? One of the several, we as marketers, utilize in our attempts to encounter our consumers more times during the day with our message?

Probably it is not just that and here is why: The ever improving features of the smart phones, for example, do allow us already

 to replace the radio with a podcast we like or our own music selection,
 they do let us surf the net and get our news from Google news or read them from our email box,
 we could be soon watching our favourite TV shows on it and totally forget about passively zapping from one TV channel to another
 and then, we can also constantly surf the internet with our phone – for whatever we need.

So with the advancement of the smart phones, with the wider distribution of WiFi – the internet is probably not just another media anymore, but through these devices which we carry with us all the time – it seems to be becoming ……our constant personalized companion.

And then for us as marketers the challenge becomes how to give our consumers more and more reasons to come across our message during the day, being relevant to them and present where they are – on everything which has a screen.

We did touch on the possibilities which Google News, Google Alerts and similar news engines offer. Now the only drawback for the time-being could be that they track and offer news in English, but then it is up to you to understand how many of your consumers speak English and would be able to consume it.

And then there are also the online versions of the print media in the languages they are published as well. So on your decision if to advertise in the print or in the online edition of the same newspaper or magazine at double check with your consumers what their preferences are and go for it.

By the way and it still costs you less to advertise online than in the print editions and depending how you negotiate your online terms – you can actually be more efficient as well. Because you could plan on the basis of Cost per thousand (CPM) both in the online and offline print media, but then with the online one you also have the option of cost per click ( CPC) and let us see how soon it reaches us, but also the option of cost per action (CPA). So not only is are the online versions of the print media cost you less, but they also give you the possibility as a marketer to plan your communication way more efficiently.

Let us have a look at the radio and traditional as we know it, a low attention medium, which people usually consume either in their cars to and from work or as a background at home. And why do we use the radio and predominantly for entertainment and that is why we choose the radio station according to the music which they play and sometimes also for the news, especially because radio is the fastest (or should I say was the fastest) medium to give you the breaking news.

And what are the replacement options which we have for the radio nowadays? With the revolution iPod did to the way we listen to and purchase music and mp3s are definitely one of the alternatives to radio. Because if you are listening to radio predominantly for the music and well the good news is that now you (again on the question on reactively or actively consuming media) have the choice to go online and download only the songs and the singers you like. Make your own compilation or listen to the full album of your favourite singer.

And you do not have to own an iPod to do that`s most of the new generation mobile phones now also have the mp3 player option incorporated in them.

As for radio on your way to work at present more and more cars are produced with embedded iPod option in them. So then your choice becomes if to listen to the radio or to your iPod selection.

And on the other hand, there is the podcasting alternative to radio. Being themselves in mp3 format, podcasts are downloaded the same way song are, but those can be educational as well as entertaining. So in the scarce reality of our time the same way we listen to music on our mp3 player we can listen to podcasts on a topic which interests us, while say we are jogging, or going to work or relaxing. And we will not even touch today on the topic of audio books.

So as it looks like this is the bright future of radio as a media. Please do not get me wrong I am not saying it is going to disappear altogether, what we are saying today is that more and more alternatives to radio are coming up so that you are aware when media planning for your consumers to know what choices they and you have.