Are magazines dead? The Harrison Group did a study to look at content use. Industry becoming a mediator of standards and conduct as opposed to distribution. "There are few new lightbulbs," Jim notes, more about implementation. This is kind of a rambling thread from the speaker, so bear with me. When magazines first grew, it was in the era of radio, everyone was receiving the same messages. Created social homogeneity. Now fragmentation in devices and platforms. A "take no prisoners" economy as middle class declines and wealthy rise, though poor have gone down (in visible economy).

Research into digital content use: 39 percent think that it's more important to know how to search for a fact than to know a fact. Difficult to get people to understand a day not clear what's free time and not. [COMMENT: this fits in with our "chasing the mammoth" concept, always on the hunt for rewards] Not fitting schedules to content, expect content to fit schedule. People spend 9 hours with technology and media, 6.3 free time. 79 percent good at using multiple media sources. 77 percent say multitasking has helped them to become more successful. DVRs: need to schedule time to enjoy myself, 67 percent say DVRs like TiVo give people the freedom to do so. Online time for C-Level executives now 10.1 hours a week, surpasses TV at 9.6 hours, etc.
92 percent of general public use portals and search engines. 59 percent of C-level executives compare prices online, top tier of income 79 percent. In 1995 it was about 1 percent. High-tier goods much cheaper online, sometimes by a factor of 50 percent or more.

What happens when employment is a detriment to economic self-interest? In 2-income household with high level of discretionary income, if second earner stayed home and concentrated on getting savings will come out ahead. USD 115,000 advantage to reduce costs and spread purchasing power. Challenge is not how I make a better Web site but how to gain impact for this audience. MySpace not for kids, going from a dozen best friends to 40 best friends on average. 41 percent of population customize a start-up home page, 13 percent maintain a blog. You're not a medium, you're a mediator. [Good phrase] Top general business journals with low readership, Forbes on top at 16 percent.

The war as to whether technology is going to shape culture is over, time to take the bodies off of the battlefield. Number one job of professional mediator [read: media] is to validate identities and exchanges. Discontinuity anxiety is key, people worry about what they should have received. "Authenticuloegotosis" - people who think that they're an economy unto themselves. Social media "addicts" allow people to redefine themselves without the professional peril of false identity. The code of trust in one another that dominated business is lost in this mix. People need to understand what it is that they need to know [Weblogs help to do this on a very personal level, search at a technical level, what does media do?]

Back to data: I like brands that reflect high craftsmanship: 97 percent. "Wow factor," iPods "king of contemporary design," Golden Gate Bridge is beautifully done, iPod is a piece of plastic and steel with a circle and a rectangle, its own new "wow" design. Simplicity of iPod liberates from other technologies such as laptop. People love fables like and and grasshopper, tortise and hare, people love metaphors. Study who you are, because who you are is changing. Turn your markets into tribal markets [back to chasing the mammoth].

Sounds very familiar, I do believe that we're moving towards and era that is taking us back to an era prior to farms and ranches and into an era in which life is much more focused in highly contextual rewards. Excellent presentation.

Labels: ABM, Digital Velocity, events, Jim Taylor