AIMA Notes: New Media Trends — What’s Hot Now?

Session focused heavily on mobile communications and blogs/vlogs/podcasts, although Mitch Spolan of Yahoo! talked a bit about avatar and widget marketing/advertising (no doubt because of Yahoo‘s product offerings).

Central themes:

Don’t be afraid let the community play with your brand.

Can lead to greater interest in your brand, and a deeper relationship with your business. Spolan cited the Verizon ‘In’ campaign, and how the brand was extended into Yahoo! avatars.

Cool and edgy isn’t always successful.

Cool and edgy means bupkiss if your audience or product is neither cool nor edgy. Make sure you are using techologies that support your audience and goals for the product.

RSS isn’t being widely used by the audience

Marketers, however, are planning to use it. (Probably means less for marketers than it does for public relations specialists. It’s a way to deliver content.)

Technology-specific ideas / points

Mobile carriers ultimately control mobile content.

How you send it may not be how it arrives at the user’s device. Carriers may optimize your content for delivery over their network. Carriers have multiple, sometimes incompatible guidelines for content delivered over their network. (Not sure whether this is referring to ‘walled’ content like T-Mobile’s T-Zones, or to all mobile content. Also no mention of Google’s service that ‘optimizes’ web content for mobile devices. Related: Notes from “Demystifying the Mobile Web” panel at South by Southwest).

How many users will be able to take advantage of mobile offerings?

Again: knowing your audience. How popular are polyphonic ringtone capable phones (in the case of ringtones) with your audience?

Take advantage of context and ‘always near’ nature of mobile devices

Spolan suggested offering SMS/e-mail reminders. In the case of CNN, for example, they might send a mobile reminder to watch a particular show. Yahoo! calendar and Google calendar offer this.

Leveraging trusted social networks for marketing / advertising.

This was a Yahoo! MyWeb-specific example from Spolan, but could easily be applied to Friendster or MySpace, or Ma.gnolia: posting context-relevant advertisements with the number of friends in your network who have bookmarked, clicked or blogged about the same thing. (An idea that is likely to come; Not many doing this now.)

Blogs/vlogs/podcasts reach niche audiences.

In the case of the DIY Network, the issue was how to reach people with an interest in do-it-yourself topics like home improvement, gardening and crafts. Answer: blogs, message boards and existing passionate communities. The campaign featured banner ads with embedded videos. The ads, besides being eye-catching, also showcased both the network’s television and online offerings. They then plastered those ads all over blogs and sites that reached the niche they were targeting.

Random tidbits

Atlanta PHP: Zend Framework, Thu, May 4, 7 p.m.

Ben Ramsey will give a presentation on the ins and outs of the Zend framework. The group has found an interim meeting place at the Consulate General of Canada, located at Colony Square.

Signal vs. Noise Job Board

37Signals opens a job board for web designers, programmers and strategists.

50-year mortgage debuts in California

Up next, the 80-year multi-generational mortgage! Stay indebted forever!

Technorati: Atlanta, marketing, interactive marketing