Digital Media Journal

Does these five individuals represent the future of the Internet?

It's been some time since I last posted on my blog for a variety of reasons - my MBA, work, family, and all other peripheral stuff that seems to pop up unexpectedly whenever I have the time to sit down and really contemplate on the issues I feel strongly about and post on my blog.  I guess this usually happen when you take on more responsibilities in your life, and reflects a growing reality that I have to accept following each passing year.  Life I used to have in the early 20s doesn't cut it any more in my 30s. 

So, it's likely that I will be posting more observations on this blog, rather analysis of my observations which I need the time to think through the arguments before posing there here.  Naturally, these observations are focused on areas related to the digital world, which is the context of my blog.

One of the many observations I'm going to post here is a panel discussion held sometime in July where 5 young users of anything digital - Internet, mobile, X-Box, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. shared their usage patterns on the digital space, and more importantly, what are they willing to pay on the Internet.

My takeaway from this: If these individuals represent the Internet of the future, then all of us are in serious trouble.  Take a look and let me know how you feel after hearing their thoughts.

Darren (htxqrnm3pe)

Mobile Elements in Subway Media

In my previous mail on integrating mobile elements in a subway advertising media, I put forward the case on the lack of effectiveness in having an advertising message in a panel where the target audience will simply brush aside as "noise" (pun intended when the subway travels underground).

I'm an advocate of being accountable to all advertising spend. There has to be a call to action or an analytical method to measure the ad's effectiveness.

Consider the example above where there is a lot of verbage in the messenging which requires the target audience to scruntize and understand the message. Moreover (and my favourite example), who will remember the URL on the ad once they leave the train?

Here is where the mobile phone can be an excellent tool to reinforce the call-to-action (accessing the URL) by getting the subway's passengers to send a SMS to a short code and set a reminder alert to check the URL once they reach home or the office.

Beyond the use of SMS, the advertiser can use QR or ZapCode mobile barcodws on the as to attract passengers to capture and access the advertiser's mobile site. This site will focus on the key value proposition put forward by the advertiser as the screen size of most mobile handsets are too small to fit a long paragraph.

What this means is that the advertiser in a static subway door panel can add interactive elements to create a multi-dimensional ad that promotes responsiveness from the target audience.

Surely it's not the intention of the advertiser to place an ad, HOPING that people will see it. I certainly hope not.