The End of Traditional Mass Marketing is Getting Closer

Just in case you wondered how much longer you were going to be forced to put up with interruption marketing; it appears only about 12 more months. 

I've been trying to live "off the grid" from a marketing standpoint for a little over a year now.  It's actually not as tough as you might think.

First there is the internet.  I have My Yahoo home page which delivers all the news I care about as soon as I log in every morning.   RSS feeds give me the obscure blogs I subscribe to.
Email of course is fantastic for bulletins and one to one communications from my retail and business relationships.  What’s great about email is it’s interactive.  It can be delivered to me when it’s relevant and I can respond immediately.

I’ve also invested in Sirius Satellite Radio for my Truck, so I avoid commercials that way. (btw Sirius:  If I don’t want commercials, what makes you think I want idiot DJ’s????)  Fortunately, my iPod is going to make Sirius unnecessary anyway pretty soon…I’ve just got to figure out Podcasts.
That just leaves TV to interrupt me.   For that I’ve got Tivo and am going to add Tivo to every Television in my house. 

And even more great news today….
The networks are going to start airing their prime time lineup on demand! Now when I forget to Tivo a show, or when I don’t know enough about the show to Tivo it, I can go back and rent a copy on demand.  (read story here)  If this isn’t the “middle of the end” for traditional mass marketing tactics, I don’t know what is.

I know there are some extremists out there screaming: “What about SPAM?”  “What about all those Banner Ads??”

The fact is what I hate most about mass marketing is the Time I lose.   Commercials take my time away.   Pop Up’s stand between me and what I’m trying to accomplish on the web….which take time.   SPAM is going to be solved by authentication standards and better integration by the legitimate marketers…and it doesn’t really take that much time away.  Banners don’t bother me at all. 

Comments

[Shig Odani]

On-demand media and DVRs certainly have the potential to cut the number of eyeballs television commercials receive, but brand marketers are figuring out ways to append other, unsolicited marketing messages to on-demand media. For example, streaming video is a fast growing category on the internet, and large content providers generally will insert a 30-second spot at the beginning.