“Did you communicate with the vendor about this problem?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I sent them an email.”

“Did you get a response?”

“No.”

“Then the answer to my first question is no.”

Email has it’s place in our world, but we should never assume that sending an email, in itself, is communicating.  To have communication, the loop must be closed.

Email is also not good for handling difficult situations that require confrontation or dealing with a sticky problem.  For generic problems that have no emotions attached, email usually works fine.

But sometimes, you just need to pick up the phone or log in to Skype and have a vocal rather than text conversation.

Knowing when to say no to email and yes to talking is a key critical thinking skill these days.

According to Nielsen’s global survey of multi-screen media usage, watching video content on computers has become just as common as watching video content on television among online consumers.

"While the in-home TV and computer are still the most popular devices to watch video content, usage and growth in online and mobile technologies is making a sustained impact. Three-quarters (74%) of global respondents report watching video via the Internet (on any device), up four points since 2010, and over half of global online consumers (56%) say they watch video on a mobile phone at least once a month and 28 percent at least once a day."

This TED talk by Brene Brown is profound, enlightening, and encouraging.  Enjoy and share.

David Rehr, former President of the National Association of Broadcasters with some perspective for entrepreneurs on their involvement in government.

While online advertising fell overall in 2009, ad spend on online videos grew 41%.

And, with good reason.  Nielsen Research has recently released a report based on 14,000 surveys to measure the impact of video advertising online vs. video advertising on television. 

The patterns they uncovered were consistent:  video ads run during online full-episode TV programs yield deeper brand impact than corresponding on-air TV ads, with the difference most pronounced among younger viewers age 13-34.

"What accounts for this variation in impact between online video and traditional TV? Data shows that web video viewers are more engaged and attentive to the programs they are watching, which is likely a function of the viewing environment and the oft-required active mouse-clicking to initiate and continue content. Online video is also still a relative novelty compared to traditional forms of media.  Further, and most significantly, reduced ad clutter and the inability to easily skip ads are considerable recall-enhancing factors."

Another conclusion - "online video ads help to reinforce and strengthen the impact of a traditional TV campaign."

More data and analysis here.

There is a lot to say these days about social media.  I haven't seen anything that says it better than this short video.

Link for RSS readers.

Michele Miller has a great article over at Future Now discussing Barack Obama's communication style and why he seems to be hitting such a chord with voters when Hillary was expected to run away with the nomination.  Here's a freshman senator in the thick of the race for President.  No, this is not a political endorsement for Obama, but we can all learn some things from him.

His campaign theme, "Yes We Can!"  Simple. Positive. Inclusive.  He's making his campaign about you rather than about himself.  It has a collective rather than individualistic theme.  He and/or his advisers have an awareness of the emerging culture.

Look at Barack's website.  Then look at McCain's.  And Hillary's.  See the difference?

Read Michele's article.  Then consider your own marketing.  Is it all about you?  The Clinton mystique and communication style worked in the 90's.  But this is a watershed year for cultural change.  What used to work is no longer working.  Have you been noticing this at all? 

Study what's working.

And change.

Couple of sites with some more details about the Future of Online Advertising Conference.

BehindtheBuzz has the most comprehensive coverage I have seen.

Lots of links to other sites with coverage over at Digital Perm.

The conference has been excellent. 

I'm a bit weary of writing about it, so let me summarize (in my own words like Mrs. Johnson told me in sophomore English).

• The rate of growth in online advertising is steep which is creating a lot of opportunities for those who figure it out.
• According to a survey by Marketing Sherpa, the combined spend for paid search and online ads for a recent 12-month period is estimated at 12.2 billion dollars.  This is substantial but to give it perspective consider that the spend for direct (postal) mail alone was $58.7 billion, newspapers $30 billion, and even local radio rang in at $15.5 billion.  But online is growing the fastest and is in fact eating into ad spends for many other mediums including television.
• According to Jay Adelson of Digg and Revision 3 fame, forget trying to build Internet video around the Flash player.  You're going to need something portable and something that will work well with that big flat screen hanging on your living room wall.
• Carla Hendra of Ogilvy had a lot of great points including:

Lunch was "butlered" no less.

This FOOA conference really has a great line up of speakers.  There's almost too much to digest, but I've been busy making mind maps for each of the speakers to help me remember the salient points.  And my MacBook Pro has been performing flawlessly.

Chas Edwards of Federated Media kicked off the afternoon focused on the emergence of conversational media.  For businesses, the key is finding out what your customers are discussing and then try to enter into that conversation.  He noted that Business Week says its blogs are now more influential than its magazine.

Ted Murphy of PayPerPost talked about connecting advertisers to bloggers.  I'm not too big on the idea of bloggers selling ads and I think the number of organizations who can benefit from blog advertising are limited.  But, PayPerPost is a good resource for those interested.

Henry Copeland, founder of BlogAds, was up next.  Blogs could be locations where your customers are carrying on those conversations.