Couch Potatoes, Thrill Seekers and Citizen Journalists

November 4, 2008 – 10:46 am

The first keynote of the conference was presented by:

Jonathan Klein, President, CNN/U.S.
& Geoff Ramsey, CEO and founder of eMarketer.com

Klein dominated most of the available time with his discussion about bringing traditional media out of the past and into the present by taking full advantage of interactivity, social media, and user generated content. He opened his presentation with a discussion of the “Obama Loses by a Single Vote” viral video campaign that was launched by Moveon.org. This is an example of the next generation of advertising, whereas the “Mad Men” (the AMC drama about ad men on Madison Avenue) paradigm of media-buying is representative of the older generation of marketing.

Using today’s presidential election as an example, Klein broke the voting demographic into the “next gen” voters who are alienated from politics and stay largely independent of political parties, choosing to align themselves with the issues instead. The realization that CNN has made in the recent past is that many 40-50 year olds share these same ideas now. Therefore the question becomes, “:How does a traditional media outlet like CNN survive?” Klein provided several examples of web 2.0/UGC sensibility that has been injected into the CNN brand. Among those, he briefly touched on:

  • iReport, which is a UGC form of reporting by regular Joes
  • Interfacing CNN directly with Facebook
  • The “Magic Wall,” the multi-touch, interactive big screen
  • Real-time debate scoring, tracked by CNN analysts
  • Rick Sanchez’s new show that pulls news stories directly from Twitter
  • Impact Your World: An opportunity to participate in the stories you read by donating your time and money to organizations that get involved

Klein made the claim that because of these innovations, CNN is now the #1 news network on cable or broadcast for the 18-49 demographic. He also made the claim that CNN is now the #1 site on the web for video delivery. Hmmm….

Not according to Compete.com as recently as May, so he could have meant something different, but there is no question that he made a claim as #1 for video. Either way, the point he was trying to make is that embracing new media is what boosted the viewership so dramatically.

He then talked about how Twitter continues to scoop every news outlet in existence on new stories, Klien stressed how important it is for traditional media outlets to listen to social media and pay attention to where it’s going. The most relevant example was the recent Los Angeles earthquake. It was reported on Twitter less than 30 seconds after the first rumbles. Local news took about 5 minutes and AP took another 10.

During the Q&A portion of the presentation, Klein was only able to field a couple of questions, but I thought one was particularly good: “You are CNN, so you obviously have tremendous opportunities for revenue, but what would you recommend to a smaller media presence who is attempting to convert quality content into revenue?” Klein kind of dodged this one was answering, “You have to join a gang. If you’re not a Blood or a Crip yet, you need to consider getting on board.”: OK, I guess. A moderately funny answer that suggests allowing yourself to be bought by or aligned with a larger media company.

But I don’t buy it. I think that’s a bullshit answer to a good, honest question. Frankly, it was the perfect ending to Klein’s whole presentation given everything he had discussed up to that point. In terms of social media, he didn’t offer a single innovative idea. I suspect that going live with new ideas at a place like CNN is pretty hard. So the initial reaction might be to congratulate this guy for the leaps and bounds he has made at the network, but that isn’t what I am thinking. Integration with social media and UGC isn’t just a good idea; it’s vital. As in, if he didn’t do it, somebody else would have to or else CNN would be dying (or dead).

Klein is, no doubt, a compelling speaker and a seemingly interesting guy, but I didn’t think he presenting anything unique or useful in terms of real-world implementation. After all, how many people at this conference have a brand like CNN backing them up?

The next presenter, Geoff Ramsey, sped through his presentation. He essentially was there to make one point:

The economy sucks, but don’t freak out because that’s the worst thing that could possibly happen in advertising. Media spends are going to ether remain the same or improve over the next two years. The only change will be that money will be removed from traditional marketing campaigns and moved to online advertising.

I think this is something that we already know, but it was certainly comforting to see Geoff back it up with some solid data. He recently wrote a paper about the immediate future of marketing that eMarketer.com is giving away free. As soon as I obtain my copy, I’ll make it available here.

-Drew

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