Saving the Paper

Over 350 magazines closed their doors in 2009.

In true Darwinistic form, as our generation spends increasing amounts of time in front of screens, traditional media has either had to evolve or whither away. A few answers have included enabling mobile websites, social media, and "apps."

Recognizing the danger, Hearst Media, the media giant which owns Cosmo, Esquire, and Popular Mechanics, has fused digital with traditional to create its own self-serving version of Amazon's Kindle, called the Skiff E-Reader. In short, it's a Kindle for your Newspapers and Magazines. Now how will it compete with the upcoming Apple Tablet, and everyone else's digital answer to the dying traditional problem?

Physical Manifestation of Digital Media

Lately, I've noticed that major digital media personalities and brands have started to migrate to traditional media. CollegeHumor went from digital content to two tv shows (1&2), Yelp distributes stickers to relevant businesses, etc. Therefore, it's no surprise that Google, in an attempt to (1) take over the world, and (2) gain more audience (to gain more advertisers), has leaked its digital personality into traditional media, with an integrated, cross-platform twist:

Google's Favorite Places is a hybrid of traditional (stickers) and digital (mobile + QR codes), which brings a whole new aspect to the game (and reminds me of this shirt). Expect to see more migrations and hybrids from advertisers thirsty for audience and innovation.

All Digital, All the Time

Southern Comfort has announced that in order to reach its target market of 21-29 year olds, they will be spending all of their budget online.

The ads began airing on Hulu, which allows viewers to choose their method of advertising -- pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll. Spots are also running on Break.com, CBS.com, Comedy.com, Fox.com, FX.com, MyDamnChannel.com, NBC.com, Playboy.com, TheFader.com and Pitchfork.tv, as well as at Southern Comfort's Facebook fan page. (via AdWeek)



I have a feeling this campaign is directed mostly towards men... (I've never heard of MyDamnChannel, TheFader or Pitchfork...?) I'm also impressed Hulu has given the consumer the choice of how to take their advertisement.

Overall, this shift really excited me because as a Digital Media hopeful, media plans like this mean I will have a job for a very long time. Thank goodness!

Happy Birthday, DigiMed!

Today, October 27, is the 15th anniversary of the industry's first digital media / display campaign.

This ad for AT&T:

appeared on this site (Hotwired.com):

...And supposedly got a 78% Click Through Rate. That's incredible, considering nowadays we're lucky if we get a 1% Click Through Rate. We've come a long way since 1994... but in which direction? (via AdAge)

Will You Marry Me?

People are always trying to find interesting ways to propose. Although mostly clever and succesfsul, this has lead to a lot of public marriage announcements that have gone horribly, horribly wrong.

In the following cases, these clever guys used advertising, through media both old and new, to publicly pop the quesiton:

Chicagoan Eric Anderson proposed to girlfriend with bus-stop ad [via AdFreak]

Fred Ehrhart used online banner ads to propose to his girlfriend, and asks tweeters to tweet-encourage her to #sayyesd [via AdFreak]

Kids These Days

Have you seen that Microsoft commercial where the 4 year old girl creates a pretty impressive slideshow? "I'm a PC and I'm 4 years old." In his writing, Marc Prensky notes that kids these days are not only growing up differently, but they have literally started speaking a different language and thinking differently than we have. They are, what he calls, "Digital Natives," and the older generation is made up of "Digital Immigrants."

Here is the cutest Digital Native.... ever: