Mind the gapThe new digital divide

Clo Willaerts, Gent, 25 Nov 2008

Clo Willaerts?

Sanoma Magazines Belgium

http://www.bnox.be

brusselsgirlgeekdinner.be

Short history of advertising

wall and rock paintings

papyrus

signs on the street

town criers

15th-16th C: handbills

17th C: weekly newspapers

Paid advertising as a revenue model

June 1836: French newspaper La Presse is the first to include paid advertising in its pages

lower its price

extend its readership

increase its profitability

The formula is soon copied by all titles.

P.T. Barnum

Life of P.T. Barnum (1854)

The Humbugs of the World (1865)

Struggles and Triumphs (1869)

The Art of Money-Getting (1880)

Sex sells

J. Walter Thompson in 1911

sales soared in the following decade

the first ad to use sex appeal in modern advertising

Edward Bernays: the engineering of consent

Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923)

Propaganda (1928)

Engineering of consent (1955, contributor)

Google Video: “The Century of the Self”

1992: World Wide Web

The digital divide

“the troubling gap between those who use computers and the Internet and those who do not”

came into regular usage in mid-1990s

mainly used by politicians

Web 2.0: Decentralised publishing model

Web 2.0: The egosphere

Blind and blocking

Classic horror story #1

Classic horror story #2

The new digital divide

power shift: who’s in control of what gets published?

money shift: ad spendings

divide: advertisers <-> target group formerly known as the audience

Power shift: embedded publishing

Social media: but where’s the money?

Found it.

2009: recession?

Nick Denton: “From conglomerates to internet ventures, executives should be planning now on a decline of up to 40% in advertising spending during this cycle. Instead they’re sleepwalking into economic extinction…”

http://nickdenton.org/5083616/a-2009-internet-media-plan

Listen. Learn. Play.

Optimise.

If it fails, kill it quick

Rinse. Repeat.

Thank you

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