« Brand Engagement as a Metric? | Main | Blog Bits - Week of October 24th »

Media Trends

In a recent issue of PRWeek, reporter Erica Iacono explores 10 media trends to watch.  The tag-line for the piece states "from the rise of transparency to the decline of newsprint, every PR pro needs to remain on top of the ever-changing media landscape."  Coincidentally, we just finished an interview with MarketingNews about the years best marketing practices - after having the conversation with the reporter, we chatted afterward about a few cross over pr "trends" and solid marketing best practices of the year. 

According to PRWeek, some of the trends to watch include:

  • Portability of video content - such as video content on cell phones (did you see the new Sprint commercials yet?) This technology is already hot in Japan and parts of Europe, now making its way to the US.
  • Blogs - whether its corporate blogs, blog influence or monitoring blogs, its all still hot hot hot!
  • Media transparency - As mainstream media has suffered credibility issues over the past few years, the media is going to be looking for ways to involve and listen to readers, while being much more transparent. The piece points to the Public Eye Blog which has a mission to bring transparency to the editorial operations of CBS News.
  • Business woes for newspapers - layoffs, circulations scandals, low readership - time to take some action.
  • Digitalization of print media - this one ties into business woes for newspapers.  Online content as always been an nice to have or in addition to the print pubs, going forward the opposite might prove true.
  • Source agnostic/disintermediation - meaning the consumer is going to care less and less about where they are getting their information
  • Refining media measurement - the description of this trend talks more about TV measurement practices but PR measurement in general should still be consider a critical component to a communications or marketing strategy.

There are a few other trends cited in the article as well so definitely worth a quick read.

In working with a number of F1000 clients, Cymfony has an insiders view of some marketing departments best practices. Two that jumped to the surface based on the conversation today with the MarektingNews reporter included transparency and monitoring/measurement.  Whether your a media organization or a consumer packaged goods company, transparency is the new key to gaining credibility.  (Rathergate taught us that all too well).

Included in the latter is the fact that there are huge amounts of information available, information overload if you will.  Figuring out a way to organize and  benchmark activities, thoughts, opinions, such as what people are saying or who they are saying it too, can help marketing departments determine where to focus their time and to be more effective.  I'm bias but having a program in place to monitor and analyze online discussion is certainly a best practice today to help marketers guide communications strategies and marketing programs.

Posted by Cymfony on October 26, 2005 at 03:44 PM | Email this post Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341cdcdc53ef00d83556712f69e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Media Trends :

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.