Why NBC Doesn’t Know Any Better: Why media distribution will never be perfect

Posted by scottloughran on Feb 23, 2010 in Media, Opinions | 0 comments

When we look at the various media we consume, how and when we consume them, how often and with whom we consume them – the ideal story of distribution will never be agreed upon. I don’t spend all my “prime time” hours watching NBC‘s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC for the same reasons as everybody else: I don’t like the fact they’re not live, and I don’t like having which events I want coverage of being decided by possible ad revenue. Of coarse we know that is the nature of the beast, and NBC is nearly power-playing their ad space – any smart business would do this when it’s about business.

Soap Box

Posted by scottloughran on Dec 8, 2009 in Opinions, Social Media | 0 comments

Shirky’s presentation on how the internet has allowed audiences to become producers and contributors to conversations through social media definitely impacts the future storytelling on the web. How? Well, it changes it because it allows us to enlist all of the modern technologies we are use to using to communicate in one platform, causing people to feel enabled worldwide. This is why your grandma has a facebook page; not because she just happens to wake up a social media guru, but she likes seeing pictures of how you and your family are doing and engaging in a conversation about those pictures. This is a much more efficient way of things then here catching a flight from Tallahassee and showing up at your house, sitting down on the couch as she tries to talk you in to covering it with plastic, pulling out the grocery paper bag of Polaroids and pressing through slide shows of your trip to the Worlds’ Largest Frying Pan in Rose Hill, North Carolina.

Brands, Identity, & Why Digital Media Can Help Tell Their Story

Posted by scottloughran on Dec 1, 2009 in Media, Social Media, Strategy | 0 comments

Digital Media & Story

The term digital media is very general and very fluid. As new technologies and distribution channels are introduced to the world, the argument of “What is digital media,” will evolve. The tools and technologies we use to communicate are not what they were 50 years ago or even five years ago, nor will they all be the same five months into the future. Let us establish a definition that helps us understand what digital media is:

When a data source is transmitted by a host or creator, received and interpreted by a machine (i.e. computer, television, cell phone, etc.), and then presented to consumers in text, audio or visual context formats.

This can be a newspaper presenting its’ content via a website, the blog of a corporation or a friend, podcasts, a television series, movies, music, social media sites and profiles, phone applications and much more. Stories have carried various sources of information since communication was invented (we will save that subject for another day.) Stories, at their root, are a source of data left to be interpreted by a receiver,

Reviewing McLuhan

Posted by scottloughran on Nov 4, 2009 in Media, Opinions | 0 comments

Summary:

Marshall McLuhan is arguably the first person to study the effects of traditional media on culture and society and gained large notoriety in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. His theory that the message delivered through media was not the content, rather the medium that deployed the content. McLuhan puts it this way, “This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium – that is, of any extension of ourselves – result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.” McLuhan saw, for example, the wheel (a medium) as an extension of the leg and foot, or a book (another medium) as an extension of the eye.

Online Advertising Is Dead?

Posted by scottloughran on Aug 17, 2009 in Opinions | 0 comments

The claims are that online advertising is failing, and as far as numbers are concerned – it very well could be. There is not a definite answer as to when advertising was first instituted for financial gain, but some say it was in the 1400’s when paper handouts the size of a large postcard were distributed to those passing by places of business. As any new business idea, I’m sure the concept had its critics and only through time and advancements in the technology to produce such advertising did it start to make sense and its benefits became noticeable. Such is the case with online advertising. Traditional advertising in print is arguably 600 years old (1), television advertising has a 68 year history and internet advertising is the first major disruptor since the first sponsored television broadcast in 1941 (2).

5 Commandments of Engagement

Posted by scottloughran on Aug 7, 2009 in Strategy | 0 comments

So what does my little presentation on how to get Google Analytics started in your blog have to do with engagement? I believe this humanizes a company in a way. It’s kind of like them saying, “We trying to make the process of utilizing our tools easy, but we know it might not be that easy for everyone. Here is something else to help.” As a consumer that is important to me. There are several services I use over others that might be more widely accepted because the creator reached out to me through an instructional video or a slide show with step-by-step instructions. I appreciate that.

All digital media channels have a huge audience it is not reaching because of its lack of engagement. What we will call engagement crimes can come from poor UI on a company site, not contributing to consumer forums, or not having a social media strategy.