Commentary

Trading Analogue Pennies For Digital Dollars

I'm looking forward to today's OMMA Mobile agenda, because I'm starting to see mobile in a new, much broader light since the last time we met to discuss this rapidly growing, and rapidly changing media platform. Among other things, I've started to recognize how mobile isn't necessarily a medium in and of itself, but often is the glue and connectivity for a lot of the rest of the media ecosystem. That's something I learned last week during MediaPost's Digital Out-of-Home Forum in this same venue, where much of the discussion centered on the notion that mobile connectivity had become the "clickthrough of out-of-home media."

There are many, many implications and opportunities associated with that notion, and maybe some of it will come up today at OMMA Mobile. If you've got any thoughts, please post them here.

But my real point is that people are beginning to think of mobile media -- especially the mobile Web -- in much the same way that people were thinking about the early World Wide Web a decade ago: That yes, it was a medium, distinct in it's own right, but it also was a medium that would allow other media to interconnect, and activate consumers, content, and advertising in ways our industry had never imagined before. These days, few would dispute that rationale, but many traditional media organizations continue to look at it in a negative way, because they see the emergence of digital platforms -- the wired Internet, or the mobile Web -- as disintermediating agents that are challenging their economic models. That's true, of course, and it was NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker who may have summed it up best when he quipped the sound bite of the past year that digitization is causing traditional media companies to trade "analogue dollars for digital pennies."

That economic equlibrium is going to sort itself out eventully, but I can tell you that it works the other way too. All you need do is look outside. Outside the box. Out-of-home, that is. Outdoor historically is a medium that has reaped pennies relative to the big electronic media, and even magazines and newspapers. But now I'm seeing it begin to trade analogue pennies for digital dollars, and it's all thanks to the digitization of the medium, including place-based video, interactivity, and especially, mobile connectivity. It's been fun watching a traditional medium reinvent itself that way, and I can't wait to see where it goes next, and how mobile becomes intertwined into the fabric of out-of-home, and location-based media.

For now, I will share one last thought with you -- a personal one -- on how mobile connectivity is changing, and empowering my coverage of these trends. This blog entry was written and posted via my BlackBerry as I was traveling late to attend OMMA Mobile this morning. So if you see me walking in during the keynote, I'll be easy to spot. I'm the guy rubbing his sore thumbs.

1 comment about "Trading Analogue Pennies For Digital Dollars".
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  1. Dean Collins from Cognation Inc, April 29, 2009 at 3:03 p.m.

    Speaking of which, does anyone know of any mobile ad networks that are paying CPM display rates.

    So far it's CPC only.... which is going to hold content development back. Or am i missing something?

    Cheers,
    Dean Collins
    www.Cognation.net

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