Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question
Looking at the world of media trend watching through viral video, here's our education system on display at this weekend's Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant. Uploaded on YouTube just two days ago, it already has more than 2 million total views...and the number is quickly rising. Labels: 2007, blonde joke, Education, Lauren Caitlin Upton, Media Trend Watching, Miss Teen USA, Teens, Viral Video, YouTube
This is how South Carolina's Miss Teen USA Lauren Caitlin Upton answered her question from the judges hoping to show her "substance" beyond her beauty.
Blonde jokes can now begin.
Wa-wha-what?
click here to view directly.
posted by Unknown @ Monday, August 27, 2007,
,
The Joys of Drawing With MS Paint?
Labels: applications, brilliant, Digital, freeloveforum, geeks, Humor, MS Paint, satire, software, Spoof
Some Sunday funnies for you...just found this wacky satire from freeloveforum reviewing the joys of MS Paint, where apparently the world is turning digital, the future is now and the future is in the past at the same time. In case you'd like to catch up, consider the amazing MS Paint to help get you there (tutorial here).
How? Make sure you follow that squiggly-drawn circle you draw with your mouse. Really! Or simply use that fancy erase tool if you get lost and start again.
Brilliant!
The media trend? User-generated viral video content -- especially ironic humor -- remains frequently smarter and more funny than what we get from TV.
posted by Unknown @ Sunday, August 19, 2007,
,
Media Trending: Spending Up, Usage Slightly Declining
Labels: 2007, Consumers, Future of Radio, Joint Communications, Media, Media trending, Predictions, Radio, Revenue, Usage, VSS
Has media reached a new usage plateau? A new level of consumer saturation? What's a new view of the future for media?
Private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) has released a new study forecasting spending in the media industry into 2011. The study found that while communications spending increased in 2006, consumer media usage actually dropped after multiple years of growth.
Total communications spending grew 6.8 percent to $885.2 billion in 2006. VSS predicts that in the first half of 2007, the industry will grow by 6.4 percent, making it among the fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy.
VSS also predicts that Internet advertising will replace newspapers as the largest ad medium by 2011.
Meanwhile, media usage per person declined last year by 0.5 percent, according to their data, due to changing consumer behavior and the efficiency of digital media. VSS found that digital alternatives for news and entertainment require less time investment than traditional media. VSS predicts consumer media usage to stabilize this year and slightly increase through 2011.
Consumers are also moving away from ad-supported media, such as broadcast TV and newspapers. VSS labels options such as video games and cable TV "consumer-supported platforms," and says their usage is increasing as time with ad-supported media decreases.
"We are in the midst of a major shift in the media landscape that is being fueled by changes in technology, end-user behaviors and the response by brand marketers and communications companies," said James Rutherfurd, EVP and Managing Director for VSS. "We expect these shifts to continue over the next five years, as time and place shifting accelerate while consumers and businesses utilize more digital media alternatives, strengthening the new media pull model at the expense of the traditional media push model."
If we have reached a new plateau of media consumption, it is worthwhile to take a look around the media landscape right now. Who has survived? Which platforms are still thriving? Still hanging on?
More specifically, take a look at radio. Good news...radio still operates with strength. It is simple, reliable, cost-effective and still is used weekly by 94% of the population. Radio has gone through tremendous industry change and competitive challenge from new media options...and radio still survives.
Is radio ready to rev it back up and go after the demographic it has nearly lost (teens) or the demographic it has turned away from (Boomers)?
posted by Unknown @ Saturday, August 18, 2007,
,
Web Analytics: The Actives and Less Actives
Labels: Being digital, Digital life, Internet, Jointblog, PEW, trends
Sure, for many...but not all. First of all, the technology needs to work. When it works, being digital can mean greater productivity...or it can be overwhelming just trying to keep up with the upgrades. Or frustrating to fix when there's a glitch or interface problem, even among those who know what they are doing. And shopping!
Just consider all the different number of gadgets and digital options. To many, it remains very intimidating.
If you consider yourself a "wired" person, it is easy to forget the rest of the population. Not everyone is as happy with this digital life as you might be.
According to the latest update in the PEW Internet & American Life Project, 59% of us are less than thrilled with new digital connections and options, as illustrated in the graphic table above ("The Digital Less-Actives").
Based on their on-going national panel study:
- 10% of us are "connected but hassled"
- 8% are "inexperienced experimenters"
- 15% are "light but satisfed" digital users
- 11% are digital "indifferents"
Meanwhile, 15% are completely "off the network". They have neither a cell phone nor internet connectivity.
Add all those user segment groups together, that's 59% of the total population describing themselves as either non- or light-users. 59% that currently are not active digital users.
Does that surprise you in 2007? Being a digital person (after all, you are reading this Jointblog post), wouldn't you expect to see more people being digital?
What it means is we still haven't reached the peak for a full digital life in society. There continues to be opportunity to reach new consumers.
The key?
Make it simple.
Make it easy.
Take away fear and frustration.
How well are you connecting with your potential digital audience? Are you making it too hard for them to use your site? Too difficult to be interactive with your digital audience? Are you giving your audience too much choice, too many options?
What can you do to make their digital life more simple?
posted by Unknown @ Sunday, August 05, 2007,
,
