A friend emailed me about an article entitled “Closing the Digital Frontier” in The Atlantic and wanted to get my reaction. Here’s what I wrote back:

I still believe the web is the modern day Wild Wild West; in fact, I call it that around the agency. What we’re seeing now is the adolescence of the Information Age. An equally awkward time for those who create content and those who sell it.

Here’s my take, from a media standpoint: the media (newspapers, magazines and to a much lesser extent broadcast) didn’t take the web seriously enough in its infancy. It was something “they” didn’t understand, and it was thus cast off. To be nice they called it “added value” to their offerings. Content was free, because that was fair market value for online content. Now they are trying to move to charge advertisers more and creating paid content sections for visitors.

The real problem is: how do you shift from an environment in which the content is free to one in which you charge for it?

Meanwhile, companies like Apple and Google were visionary enough to understand the coming seismic shift in consumer behavior. Apple and Google have figured out how to monetize the web, and it isn’t magical–they each basically framed a conduit to corral and distribute the massive amounts of content in an orderly fashion. This creates value. If I want a song, I go to iTunes. If I want anything else, I go to Google.

The move from free to fee is going to be interesting to watch. I suppose you could call the last fifteen years or so “product sampling,” but that’s probably a stretch.

Read More

With the real estate market in a pretty epic slump, how are realtors selling property? Some of them are getting smart and turning to tactics typically utilized for smaller consumer goods.

Yesterday at the office, while I’m running around like a mad man, someone tosses me a package. “It was hand delivered for you.” Okay, I’ll check it out. Inside is a message from a prominent real estate developer in the area, and to paraphrase:

Here are the keys and gate opener to a corner town-home unit in our latest downtown development…use it as a crash pad when you are working late and are too tired to drive over the bay…it’s got everything you need.

My reaction: wow, this guy is smart.

The developer knows that I spend a crazy amount of time at the office, not leaving most nights until 10 pm or later, and he knows that I make the commute over Mobile Bay. While it’s not a bad drive, facing it at midnight can be less than fun.

This is a great example of a down market forcing some back-to-basics marketing techniques. Product sampling has been around forever, but giving someone the keys to a condo is a bit different than passing out free cans of Red Bull. In this case, it’s an old-school tactic that feels innovative.

I’m going to check this place out next week. If the dude stocked the fridge, he may have just sold a condo.

Read More