A lot of hard work deserves a little celebration. Here’s the invite for our Cinco Cuatro de Mayo party, where we’ll be toasting to our May birthdays and a great start to 2012. (We don’t actually own any mariachi attire, so maybe we should toast to Photoshop too.)
We are excited to announce the launch of our new image. Complete with new branding, new work and new success stories, it will embody the spirit of our brand statement: To connect people more completely to a brand. The complete experience is almost ready. Until then, enjoy a sneak peek into the world of studiocom.com.
It happens to the best of us, we establish patterns and cling to how we’ve always done it—even after “it” stops working. This is clearly the case with advertising spending.
Even though more and more people spend less and less time in traditional media channels, the advertising dollars haven’t followed them. To be fair, this misalignment can’t all be blamed on inertia. The new spaces are notoriously bereft of traditional mass communication options while the people in them are resistant to interruption-based messages.
So what kind of opportunity does this create? To begin, brands that align their marketing investments to the channels where people actually are stand a far greater chance of being seen. More importantly, those that focus on relevancy not just the volume of impressions will have a much better shot at connecting.
Here are a few trends that will help align time spent in media with ad spend:
Our consumers now control what conversation takes place, and where. How can we connect with them?
The two-way relationship between physical and digital already exists; it simply needs to be expanded. Brands have an opportunity to extend their digital reach into physical environments and allow their customers’ digital actions to bear tangible effects.
How our interactions on the web can lead to physical results:
Grandpa, tell me about the old-timey desktop web.
In April of 2010, Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley released a report that stated mobile web would overtake desktop internet usage in the next 5 years. This forecast is “technically” on track to happen two years ahead of schedule (probably at the end of 2013). The extraordinary thing is that “mobile” actually overtook the desktop internet over a year ago and we never really noticed.
Here’s what I mean:
If you look at December 2010 you’ll see that time spent on the web was only 4 minutes ahead of the time spent with mobile apps. The interesting bit is that 6% (or 4.2 minutes) of the “web” time was “mobile web.” When this 4 minutes changes columns you end up with 66 minutes on the Desktop web and 70 minutes spent with mobile web and mobile apps. Am I cheating a bit? Sure, but the point is that time spent with mobile had already hit critical mass by the end of 2010 and has been accelerating ever since, which, leads nicely into our next topic, the desktop computer.
Grandma, what’s a desktop computer?
If you don’t already have a tablet buy one.* Tablets are the fastest selling new technology in history and the impact on consumer behavior is transformative. A lot of people spending a lot of time and buying a lot of stuff means that tablets will become a critical point of brand engagement.
*Just don’t do it today, wait until March when the iPad 3 is released, it’ll be so worth it.
But all this tablet love means someone is going to be left lonely. Here’s how much less love tablet owners give to their other gadgets:
As you can see tablets have a significant impact on time spent with other devices in the household but nothing is being neglected more than poor Mr. desktop computer. 3% of tablet owners stop using them completely and 32% use them less then they did before. Simultaneously, sales of new desktop PC’s are being cannibalized by tablet sales. In fact, 2011 was the second worst year for PC sales in history (except for Apple).
What’s the moral of the story? Start thinking about the opportunities for our brands in a post-PC, multi-screen mobile world AND what you’re going to do with all that space that’s about to become available on your desktop. A jellyfish tank perhaps?
Here’s a special holiday thank you to our clients, friends and family. You’ve all helped make 2011 a wonderful year for us, and we created a festive video to show our appreciation.
Chief Experience Officer Juan Fernando Santos defines the agency’s role in a digital-savvy consumer landscape.
Director of Digital Strategy John Rich explores the challenge of reaching the consumer in all mediums.
Some of Studiocom’s best debate the future of each social network. Which side has the upper hand? See for yourself.
