Kramer also talks about the shift in media from standard offerings to services. This shift is exponentially accelerating due to technology, leaving some media companies wrestling with how to scale a services business. Hmmm. Sound like anyone you know?

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Lots of buzz in media and internet circles over the last 2 days over the announcement that Facebook passed Google in traffic, becoming the leading Web destination in the US. There are as many people who predicted that this would happen as there are people who are shocked that it did.  Regardless of how you view Facebook, the reality is that it has become an extraordinary platform for consumer web interest. Facebook's passing Google represents a significant event. One that we may well look back on as a tipping point. Exactly what has driven the growth of Facebook-as one could argue at the expense of Google- is a fascinating discussion and debate for media and Internet professionals and those that follow the industry. So here is my take...

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Updated on Friday, March 12, 2010 by Tony Uphoff

Transparency is a commonly used term today. From government to business to the social graph, "transparency" has become a part of our every day lexicon. There are some obvious and high profile examples of transparency becoming a press relations nightmare; sorry Michael Phelps but I needed a good example here. Phelps "bongisode" was a brand challenge. As a very visible, heroic figure, who's personal brand had been turned into a marketing platform, the image of Michael Phelps smoking pot clearly didn't have "brand truth" and the transparency of the Internet illuminated the conflicting imagery. In business this same type of transparency is shining a strong-and difficult to control-light on customer service. Regis McKenna wrote about the "Whole Product" back in the late 1980's. His thesis was that the entire customer experience, including customer service, would form the whole product experience and that in a digital world this would become even more important. As has often been the case, Regis's vision for the impact that digital technology would have on brand as a result of providing transparency to the full customer experience, would prove to be accurate.

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15 years after the web became a commercial platform, we are all still waiting for the Internet to become an advertising medium. Wait you say, the web is a huge advertising medium. Look at Google! Yes, the web has clearly generated a massive amount of marketing revenue. But its direct marketing revenue for the most part. Not advertising. The web has yet to fulfill it's promise as an advertising medium for multiple reasons.

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This is a post I did for our UBM TechWeb marketing site, Create Your Next Customer. Been getting some interesting calls and emails from the post so thought I would post it to UOM as well.

The irony of this era in marketing is that we have more tools, that connect us with our customers and prospects in more ways than ever, yielding more data than we’ve ever had, yet we still struggle to really understand them. The extraordinary power of digital media and the Internet has provided a host of new tools and platforms for reaching and engaging audiences and in turn generates a massive volume of data and metrics. I’m not sure however that we as marketers or business information and media providers are any better at understanding what our customers need based on all of this information. I’d actually argue that we are awash in so much data that it has made “listening” even harder.

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The end of 1999 was a wild time. It was the dawning of the 21st century. Equity markets were soaring. Media synergy fueled an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions and the Web appeared to be sweeping everything up in its wake. The Internet was proving to be as powerful as the predictions too. Pure play online start ups were popping up everywhere and valuations surpassed larger, profitable, more established media businesses. The concept that the Internet would be more efficient than "traditional media" was a significant valuation driver. Another was the promise of multiple forms of revenue. The "3 C's": Content, Community and Commerce, served as the foundation for hundreds of online start up business plans. In 18 months, from the middle of 1998 through the end of 1999, I had two acquaintances of mine from the media industry make over $125 million in online media IPO transactions. 1999 was a party indeed. Like all parties however the rager that started the decade came to an end. And the next morning wasn't pretty. Nor as much fun. In some respects the hangover continues...

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Ok so first let me geek out a bit. I'm writing this post at 35,000 feet above what I would guess is Kansas (don't they all look the same?) as I fly from Chicago to LA. While I hear endless commentary from other frequent travelers about how poor airline service is and the appalling aspect of charging for what was previously free services (tangent alert media industry...pay attention the concept of charging for previously free services is not your nightmare alone...far from it) the reality for me is I'm still geeking out on having wireless on flights across the country. It is a *huge* game changer and totally and completely negates the increasingly shitty experience of frequent travel. But, I digress. This is not the point of my post...Print. Yes print

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