The Medium Is The Message

The innovation I have chosen is not something I use every day, but something I find highly interesting.

Content Marketing is an innovation in marketing that has existed for many years. However, it didn’t earn major traction until the rise of digital media.

The Content Marketing Institute was founded by Joe Pulizzi. It is the leader in content marketing research and implementation. Pulizzi defines content marketing.

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

CMI created an infographic outlining the history of content marketing.

In the early days of TV and film, content marketing was known as product placement. It wasn’t until 2001 that the phrase content marketing was first used. Content Marketing is the integration of advertising content into editorial content. Ideally the goal is to create marketing that doesn’t interrupt the flow of content.

In 2010 according to CMI 88% of brands utilize content marketing. It also states that 25% of marketing budgets were spent on content marketing.

I want to go back now to the readings, the medium is the message. I feel like this statement is very relevant to content marketing. That’s exactly what digital media are, the message. Digital media have created a new way to communicate with the world. With that new way comes a new way to communicate with consumers. Previously, advertising told consumers what marketers thought they needed to hear. Now marketers listen to consumers because of digital media. Digital media have created a new use for communication, interactivity. Content Marketing is interactive. It provides a way for consumers to gain valuable information about products and services while enjoying editorial content. Marketers now have two-way communication to create an environment where consumers feel like they’re involved in the marketing process.

Interactive Content Marketing

Today, content marketing surrounds the content we consume on a daily basis. These experiences come from sponsored ads, and links, banner ads and articles. However it’s important to understand the difference between effective and ineffective content. That’s what I’ve been following in the content marketing world. Finding ways to switch from traditional advertising to digital content without disrupting the flow. This video from CMI explains what separates effective strategy from ineffective.

Content Research 2015 CMI

Today on Twitter I followed CMI, Josh Earnest the white house press secretary, and NPR politics. I followed CMI because I’m always reading their articles anyway and watching their videos. I can’t believe I wasn’t already following them. I followed Josh Earnest because his job is essentially my dream job. I really enjoy campaign strategy and hope to break into the political field one day. That’s also why I decided to follow NPR politics. The election year is coming up, and I need to stay up-to-date.

Defining Digital

My definition of digital media would be, any form of media that is presented or viewed in the digital form. In other words, it’s not print, TV, or AM/FM radio. It is limited to whats on the Internet and the World Wide Web. It includes, graphics, text, images, video and sound.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/digital-media.html

The research articles for this module have a few things in common. Both Engelbart, and Bush begin with placing historical context on technology. Throughout history we have tried to augment the human mind or find ways to make something easier for the human brain to complete. Technology was invented to make human life better.

Times.com has an astounding video of how technological advances have helped amputees regain limb use.  It always reminds me of Sci-Fi movies from the 70s with cyborgs, half human/half machine.  This is what technology is supposed to be for, making the world a better place for humanity.

http://ti.me/R6uTmD

We just try too hard… It can’t be all bad.

Most of us are or were at some point in time a Mass Communication major.  Even if you’re in marketing you know what I’m about to say.  We all know about the diffusion of innovations theory.  We know there are groups of consumers that are labeled from early adopters to laggards. I bet everyone also knows a few people that fit into each category.

I consider myself to be somewhere between the early majority and the late majority for most products and services out there. Personally I doubt I’ll ever be a true early adopter because I don’t stay on top of trends enough.

When you look back, especially with computer technology, you find that most of our great “innovators” just took someone else’s work and made it better. That is actually the American way. We take your technology and make it better and call it ours. I don’t really have a problem with this, but I can see how some would.

If any of you watch Silicon Valley you’ve seen some of this.  Sure, it is a fictional TV show, but most of what happens in the show is how the app/web based culture operates.  Its a bunch of kids trying hard to be individuals. I’m only 24 years old and I still feel like a kid compared to some people. I think that, overall, this generation of 13-25 year olds are trying WAY too hard to be individualistic.  With the WWW being what is is now, a series of niche sites and users, we have created a culture that tries to stand out and say hey look at me! What I do is valuable.

Now most of it is valuable, but a good portion of it is not. Most of our advances through computer related technology has significantly advanced the human race and has been beneficial in some way to mankind. However, I once again state that I think we as a generation are trying too hard.  We hear about the 60s and 70s like glory days from our parents. They describe it as a time of advancement as a human race into the higher arts, almost like a renaissance.  These feelings create an undeserved pressure from the world that a lot of kids can’t handle. There are over 7 BILLION people on the planet. That is a huge amount of competition. There are only so many careers out there and unfortunately most of us have to settle.  Just think about public school now, compared to even 5 or 6 years ago for some of us. I don’t know if I could make it.

Some people say, oh the world gets worse with each generation. I disagree with this statement because I feel like every generation before us has said the same things about those after them. I’m sure 15 years from now we’ll all be saying how horrible today’s kids are compared to when we were.

The point of this is to say that even though the WWW has existed for over 20 years, we still don’t know what it will become. Most of us would agree that the WWW from the 90s was much more garbage than it is today.  I know that in another 20 years the WWW will be something different and better than it is.  We must continue to advance the Internet and the WWW to create a more effective and efficient medium for communication for the future. We need to try to make the world a better place for the generations after us.