• by Jeff Bell , September 21, 2011

For more and more aspects of our lives, the Internet is the "everyday answer." For travel, almost everyone uses the Internet over a travel agent or calling an airline directly. Surprisingly, financial services have overcome privacy and security concerns and now most people bank online. This follows the acceptance of the ATM in lieu of branch visits, so perhaps is not too surprising. We see that people are managing their careers online, whether with job search (Careerbuilder) or resume management (Linkedin). Even finding love (Match.com) or other relationships (Craigslist or hookup.com) is more and more the mainstream. We read that most people buy goods in stores, but Amazaon and other shopping sites are generally accepted. Most people do not use Skype to call, but more people adopt it for one-on-one connections with distant friends and family.

The power has certainly shifted over the past decade. Comfort with the Internet has grown dramatically, as fear has subsided. Usage is growing steadily, but that usage is not uniform. Most people do not blog, but people increasingly "post" their status on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin. Indeed, for those under 18, over 50% receive their "news" from blogs and message boards. Even journalists promote blogs as they seek an audience and freedom from the newspaper owners they generally despise. Blogs are no longer the online equivalent of "public access cable."

Think about how we increasingly investigate what ails us. There is so much information, both pedestrian and highly technical, about medicine and our health. More and more people use the Internet to try and self-diagnose. What does this say about our confidence in our General Practitioner? I hear more and more Doctors complain that their patients don't tell them their symptoms but rather tell them the various things they think they have and why. How will this change the way that pharmaceutical manufacturers promote their drugs and therapies? Will they continue to press the flesh of Doctors with their free samples and sales representatives? Will they need to change to a more direct model based upon the power of our connected world?

The other major change in the past decade is that we no longer "surf the web," we "search the web." Unlike TV where people will turn on and browse about for something to watch, going to the web is less and less an experience without a specific purpose or destination. Let's contrast this with our television viewing behavior. We generally do not "watch a show; we watch TV." A similar behavior occurs people peruse Facebook or Twitter just to see what people are doing and talking about. But this tends not to be best for advertisers because the level of engagement is shallow. Interestingly, with "appointment video viewing," whether on demand, or recorded, the internet behavior of "point and shoot" is slowly migrating into our television behavior. This has profound implications for media and advertisers.

I am very confident that the practical aspects of the Internet will insure continued growth -- gathering information and transacting. My word of caution for all this is over the very nature of consumers. We are comparative (good for the web), compulsive (good for the next cool thing) and satiable (bad for doing the same thing over and over forever). Basically we like choice. If we don't have something, we want it. But once we have it, we don't want it anymore. Where this becomes problematic is for social networks like Facebook. So long as the community can sustain itself with interesting things, then it will work, but like so many others...when it is no longer "cool" because "everyone is doing it" (especially for the next young generation), then a new "exclusive and cool" network will emerge. Remember, great consumer marketing always seeks to segment the audience to improve sales and margin. The social network "market" may well do the same -- consolidate and fragment. It is in the very nature of capitalism as Schumpeter taught us in his theory of creative destruction. Just as we are seeing the struggles at Netflix after being the "it" streaming company, we must remember that true barriers to exit and entry are difficult to maintain in a digital world.

So how are we consuming entertainment and media? Initially, when we accessed the Internet with dial-up, media usage was limited. Today, with broadband "always on" and with high speed service, we see that media consumption is rapidly changing. There are several interesting trends. First, young people are watching TV and movies on PCs, laptops and Tablets (legally with Netflix and illegally with Surf the Channel). This is a natural evolution from the "time shifting" of DVRs. We expect to watch what we want when we want thanks to TIVO. Second, more and more people are watching television with an iPad, smart phone, PC or laptop in the same room or literally in their hand. Call it multi-tasking, but for more and more people, the Internet can enhance the TV experience (answer questions, communicate with other fans, etc). Third, the future of TV is that TV will become more like the Internet. Next up will be tCommerce, where we will be able to purchase directly from our remote control. All the cable and satellite companies are working on this. Fourth, there is no good news for news. All demographics are getting information from the Internet and their mobile phones. Newspapers will need to drop "papers" from their name soon enough. Radio is ok because of the car, but that's about it. Internet radio is even better at discovery, the key to radio's success. Magazines may be ok for a while, but now that iPads and Tablet PCs can give us the big photos and big ads (interactive), they too will be forced to exit the "cutting down trees and printing with ink" business.

In summary, people are increasingly living their lives on and through the Internet. My advice to advertisers, publishers and businesses is to think of the Internet no differently than any market. Focus is better. Keep it simple and effective. Understand that every consumer is unique, that segmentation is required, and that choice is good. Next, everything we expect from the web on a PC will move to mobile phones, tablets and our big-screen television. Finally, I share two words of caution. First, the most technically advanced are already beginning to push back against too much tech and intrusion into their lives. People are becoming reflective about being tethered to devices 24/7. Many are saying "enough already." As a consequence, advertisers must be careful to establish when and where they will be so people can understand and accept. Control must remain with the individual. Second, the medium for media is rapidly becoming the application. When content is completely immersed within the application (see Oolaya.com) then how people become aware, consider, share, form preferences, purchase and are serviced radically changes. People get ready!

Jeff Bell, Chairman, DOmedia