These days press headlines are, in a word, depressing. It seems every media outlet is talking about lay offs, downsizing, bail outs, law suits . . . the list goes on. Rick Webb and Noah Brier of the interactive marketing agency The Barbarian Group have had enough. They would like their news with a side of optimism.
In today’s New York TimesJenna Wortham reports that Rick Webb and Noah Brier have set up a Twitter account under the name “Media is Thriving” where they only post updates about positive changes in the media industry. How refreshing!
The idea spawned from an existing Twitter account called “Media is Dying” that posts news of lay offs and cut backs happening in the media industry. Rick Webb commends the creators, saying, “I did love the sensation that you’re actually seeing the media die in real time. It’s spooky.”
But, one can only take the bad news for so long. Rick Webb explained, “I was never a ‘good news’ kind of guy, but the bias is starting to bug me. It was bringing me down to only hear about the doom and gloom of the industry, when it’s really not all bad news.”
Thus, “Media is Thriving” was born. In just 6 short days the account has attracted 750 followers. It has also spawned two more versions: “Media is Hiring” and “Media is Changing”.
Now you can get your media industry news in any flavor you choose: Optimistic, Pessimistic, Realistic or Capitalistic.
According to Miller High Life, “Spending $3 million for a 30-second commercial just doesn’t make sense. We’re keeping it short and simple.”
While a one-second ad may seem odd at first, this advertising strategy was actually quite brilliant. Consider:
Everyone is already familiar with the Miller High Life ‘guy’ so when the commercial appeared it was obvious what it was for.
When the media learned about a 1-second Superbowl ad there was an automatic ‘buzz-worthy’ story to it.
Superbowl commercials are not just made for the Superbowl anymore, they’re made to become viral videos and push viewers to a Web site.
So while Miller High Life was spending just a fraction of the $3 million (a still hefty $100,000) for their 1-second of attention, they were using that second to pull hundreds of thousands of visitors online, which is where they really wanted them anyway. And, once they’re online Miller High Life had their potential customer’s complete attention.
Whether this is advertising in a recession or just plain creative advertising, there is no doubt that Miller High Life is thinking of new ways to attract attention, and in just one second created one of the more entertaining and conversation-provoking commercials of the night.
Marketing communications operates within an increasingly complex multi-stakeholder web of influences, and the way many of us can or will be able to devine how influence goes around and comes around, how reputations get built up and eroded, is to look at it pictorially.
So I’m ever so interested in data visualisation, in case you hadn’t guessed. But marketing communications is far from the only field look at visualising vast datasets to ease comprehension and interpretation; if anything, we’re at the tail end. Which is no bad thing as we inherit the prior works of other sectors and put it to use more quickly than they were able.
The image at the top of this post is from the latest set of screenshots of Skyrails available here on Flickr, and reprents a visualisation of a protein structure. I have included some other static images below because not only are they beautiful but they whet your appetite for what could be achieved in visualising and understanding influence. I finish with a YouTube video that demonstrates how the data can be manipulated in a way a static image cannot convey.
Of all the sectors in which data visualisation is important, you could say biology is metaphorically closest to marketing communications. We talk, after all, about “virals”, and the idea of “memes” comes from the study of genes. So when you take a look, try to view how this would work in analysing your campaign’s biosystem.
