What is media in 2008?

When I began the Media Hunter blog my world-view was much narrower. I intended to write about media, marketing and advertising news and issues in my local region as it related to my clients and our agency. Initially that meant most posts covered radio, television and press stories, with maybe a little bit of online news for good measure.

The dialogue has changed dramatically over the year or so that Media Hunter has existed. So much so that I now have been forced to ask myself, what is media in 2008?

A decade ago, or maybe even less, media in regional centres was easy to identify. The local TV stations, local radio stations, local press and perhaps some outdoor were all the available and relevant media for marketers to utilise. It was all pretty straight-forward.

Now the landscape has changed forever, even for regional marketers. Increasingly we are talking to clients about a diverse range of "media" options. Blogs, podcasts, online sponsorships and more. 

Now I believe that we can broadly consider:

• Traditional media - TV, radio, press, magazines, outdoor

• Digital media - websites, mobile phones, digital TV, e-books & e-letters, video games

• Social media - blogs, social network sites, sharing sites, virtual worlds and more

Consider the story of Tim Ferriss and his best-selling book The 4-Hour Work Week.

Recently I met Tim and asked him to explain how much social media has contributed to his success. He felt it had been a major factor in driving the 4-Hour Work Week up the bestseller ranks where it eventually hit number one on Wall St Journal, New York Times and Amazon lists.

Tim explained how he had been interviewed on the Today show in the USA with Matt Lauer and fellow guest Donnie Deutsch as part of his book promotions. This is America's most popular breakfast program, so the publisher ordered extra copies and arranged for premium store placement nation wide. Sure enough, the sales took off and the book reached approximately 15 on the NYT list in the next week.

However, a little later Tim was interviewed by Robert Scoble on his popular geek web TV show. This is a much narrower audience than Today and obviously can be viewed at any time. Within a few days the book hit approximately No.5 on NYT.

Conclusion: Scobleizer is a media.

Tim Ferriss talks up various products and ideas on his blog, delivering substantial traffic to the relevant site, potentially resulting in sales.

Conclusion: Tim Ferriss' blog is a media.

I recently ran an interesting job ad for my agency. It ran in the local press, but was also released to Tafe and Uni students. Servant of Chaos published the job ad on his site, resulting in plenty of hits on the ads website.

Conclusion: Servant of Chaos is a media.

This week I have been experimenting with new social chatter site application Plurk. Posting on Plurk, engaging new "friends" and generally being active has delivered above average traffic to Media Hunter. I can post topics and build audience in 140 characters.

Conclusion: Plurk is a media.

And so on.....I think you get my drift.

The new media options are endless. They can also be extremely focussed, cost-effective and powerful when used well. Increasingly these new media options are becoming viable even for regional advertisers or can be part of a larger marketing strategy.

So what are your media options in 2008?

Comments

[Riayn]

Working in online advertising, I find it very interesting to watch not only the new media avenues that have opened up, but how successful online advertising is at gaining a foothold in them.
It will be interesting to see what is media a year on from now and how much it has grown and changed.

[Media Hunter]

It really is amazing and rapidly changing isn't it Riayn? So many opportunities for the marketers who are willing to explore.

[Julian Cole]

I love this changing media landscape. If you had written this post a month ago there would of been no Plurk mentioned.

[Rodney]

Question: Advertising on walls in gyms etc, what type of media is this. It does not seem to fit neatly into any of the 3 categories discussed (tradition, digital, or social).

How would you classify it?