Center for Media Research: Internet is Now Dominant Media in People's Lives

According to a recent report by The Media Audit, in the past three years, the average U.S. adult has nearly doubled their daily use of the Internet as the average U.S. adult spent 2.1 hours per day online in 2006, compared to 3.8 hours in 2008, an 81% increase over three years.

As a result, the Internet now represents 32.5% of the typical "media day" for all U.S. adults when compared to daily exposure to newspaper, radio, TV and outdoor advertising.

Even those who are considered heavy newspaper readers spend about as much time online today as the typical U.S. adult. According to the report, heavy newspaper readers, those who spend more than an hour per day reading, currently spend 3.7 hours per day online. In 2006 the Internet represented only 18.4% of a heavy newspaper reader's "media day," but today it represents 28.4%.

Chris Deam @ TED Conference on Airstream Design

25k Views & Counting!

Post Recession: The Shift to Grass Roots Marketing

We've all known it for a while, but now a study by the Association of National Advertisers clarifies the point: as the country slowly claws its way out of recession, marketing budgets will be primarily focused on high-ROI efforts including Social Media, Public Relations, grass roots word-of-mouth campaigns and direct customer education, rather than traditional print advertising.

According to the survey, 47% of marketers studied are planning "pricing deals" as the initiative most likely to be increased in the current economic environment. 26% say social networking and word of mouth activities are currently most important, while 23% say public relations efforts.

Other info:

68% say media budgets will be increased
41% will increase social networking/word-of-mouth
40% will increase budgets for innovation and testing/learning
73% of respondents said they would ideally implement these increased marketing activities three to six months before the recession ends, and an additional 16% as soon as it ends.

From a quote on Mediapost:

Roger Adams, Chair of the ANA Brand Management Committee, notes that "Marketers have increased their emphasis on gauging consumer sentiment and brand health trends... with the proliferation of instant feedback... marketers can... quickly gauge brand equity, health and signs of deterioration."

Finally, in the report summation, it is noted that traditional media channels have declined in importance since the first survey was conducted in February 2007:

Television (down to 64% from 80%)
Magazines (down to 51% from 67%)
Radio (down to 30% from 36%)
Outdoor (down to 26% from 35%)
Newspapers (down to 19% from 36%)

Welcome

Welcome HARO users. This is my tiny little annex where I bounce ideas about digital marketing and PR around. Hope you find a few things interesting before you surf back to eBay or TMZ. Let me know if you have any questions you'd like me to tackle and enjoy!

New PR: Become Your Own Publisher

I was interviewed a few days ago by a reporter writing a story on "How to Connect With Gen Y." She writes for a trade magazine, and was basically looking for tips on how small and mid sized companies can connect with younger buyers.

Over the course of the conversation two things occurred to me. A) I'm closer to middle age than youth, and B) How much the communications business has changed since I started.

Print PR is still fantastic. In fact, a story in a major paper is one of the best hits a marketer can get. However now you can be your own publisher. Start a company blog. Create a monthly newsletter or magazine and send it via email to your database with links going back to your consistently updated website. The client now controls the message, which is fantastic and terrifying at the same time. There's a lot of risk there.

Done correctly, a program like this can result in boosted Search Engine Optimization, fantastic customer feedback, viral spread of your marketing message and boosted sales. Done poorly, you can irritate your potential customer base and create a negative message that is permanently cached on the internet for all eternity. So how do you avoid the latter? As I told the reporter, tread slowly. Don't try to do everything yourself. Be open, honest and transparent. They will respect you for it and business will follow. Most importantly, be consistent. Nothing is worse than clicking on a blog or facebook page that hasn't been updated in six months.

Here are a few of my favorites you might find interesting. It's a mix of corporate, new media and traditional media takes on the digital publishing game.

Southwest Airlines Corp. Blog

The findingDulcinea Blog

LA Times Up to Speed

and of course my daily haunt, Autoblog

Let me know if you have any questions: Dan@KahnMedia.com

Twitter, Social Media & Korean BBQ

This is a story about Burritos with Korean flair, Twitter, and how the "social media crazy" traditional press loves both.

I was born and raised in L.A. There are many terrible things about living in the City of Angels: earth quakes, exclusionary property values, paparazzi, terrible drivers, etc. There are also some excellent benefits. Namely, restaurants offering virtually every type of ethnic food - from hole in the wall Cuban and Pho fair to Nancy Silverton's insano Pizza - within walking distance of my house. L.A. is also home to the ubiquitous taco truck.

Catering trucks are normal in these parts, and "roach coaches" actually kept me alive during my first few years of high school, before I had a driver's license. The food it better than you would imagine. Just think NYC food cart, on a big rig chassis and with a fancy horn. However one particular such roaming palace of Good Eats has been making HUGE waves in the traditional media thanks to its wildly successful use of new media.

The Kogi Korean BBQ Truck does an INCREDIBLE job at PR/Marketing. Here's the breakdown. First, a guy named Mark Manguera started Kogi with the idea of offering a hybrid of Korean BBQ flavors and traditional Mexican street food. He brought in a business manager from the Omni hotel chain, a CIA trained chef who worked at Le Bernardin and a PR guru who also works as a food blogger. They also have a two-man new media team in charge of twitter, blogging, etc. That's right... this crew has more communicators than cooks, and its working. The buzz is INSANE.

The team cranked out a killer menu, lots of hype and name recognition and a key element all of L.A.'s hottest eateries must have to survive: exclusivity. Except unlike Katsuya + Starke or Mozza, this restaurant changes locations every night! They announce locations via Twitter, and the hipsters, lawyers, foodies and other L.A. ilk flock. If you want the grub, you have to pay attention... some even call it stalking. The trad media LOVE this story... which is where it gets kind of crazy.

First local "ist" blog LAist ran a piece back in December 2008. Then in January Pulitzer Prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold wrote a story for LA Weekly. Then LAist ran a story about LA Weekly's article. Then the always-thorough-but-usually-tardy LA Times ran a long piece in the Thursday "guide" section in February. The New York Observer jumped into the Korean Burito fray in April. Then the motherlode: On May 15 the Associated Press ran a story about the tweeting taco truck that got picked up in dozens of papers across the country. The editors at CNET must have been motivated by the AP because three days later they ran a story about the tweeting food truck trend. Finally, none other than Gourmet Magazine ran a story about Korean Tacos (yes, they wrote about the food, not the media trend - thankfully).

So what's all this mean? Well, apparently people realllly like Korean tacos. And since human nature is to want something you can't have... people really like chasing a gourmet restaurant on wheels. But the lesson for me is that even in a down economy in a city so spread out most people rarely leave their 'hood, a social media savvy PR team can drive huge consumer interest and then leverage that interest into traditional media coverage which only drives more customers. So the truck is the story for the consumers, and the consumers following the truck is the story for the media. This model won't apply to every business, but I offer a deep bow and hat tip to Mike Prasad.

Oh, and for my car friends, you can check out the new Camaro AND eat a Koji Korean Taco at the same time. More info here.