Golden Leads

One of my favorite speakers at the recent Silverpop customer conference in London was Michael Nutley, editor-in-chief of New Media Age, the U.K. weekly news magazine. Ignoring the standard PowerPoint and visual aids, Michael got up and did something unusual–he just spoke.

He gave a terrific presentation, and I filled pages with notes on his provocative ideas. I won’t take you through them all, but here are a few things he said that really stood out for me:

• PVRs (personal video recorders like TiVo) are the rejection of interruption advertising.
• The hegemony of TV and TV advertising is breaking down because people no longer live scheduled lives.
• Communities are no longer limited by geography–they can now be based on shared interests regardless of where members live.
• All roads lead to interactivity–all media is moving toward a dialogue.
• Quoting G. M. O’Connell, founder of Modem Media, on the overuse of interruption-based advertising, Michael said, “You can’t annoy people into liking you.” This is a sobering point for marketers of otherwise well-respected brands when they ask, “How often can I send to my email list?”
• In the social media space, you don’t buy media–you earn it. This is one of my favorites.
• Brands are no longer what we as marketers tell people they are–brands are what people’s friends tell them they are.
• Marketers should aspire to the condition of service. In other words, view your marketing as a service to your customers.
• Each new medium spawns a brand new form of advertising. For the Web, it was search. The question is, what will the ideal advertising form be for mobile? It’s definitely not search, Michael said. My own thought is that it’s not likely to be any form of interruptive marketing because mobile devices are simply too personal and too awkward to manage a stream of incoming messages.

Michael, thanks for coming out and doing such a great job.

Thanks to Email Marketing Strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey for this great article.