Concept: Unbundled Advertising In the Age of Fragmented Media

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by: Ilya Vedrashko

Terry Heaton at the Digital Journalist argues that the world of fragmented media doesn't spell death to advertising but calls for a different model. Instead of launching massive campaigns that exceedingly look like Napoleon's march to Russia, he urges marketers to create what he calls "advertising pieces."

"Now we've entered the world of unbundled media, where people download individual songs instead of buying CDs, watch programs when and where they want (without the commercials), and read news stories or snippets of stories via the World Wide Web instead of going out to the driveway every morning. The mass audience is disappearing and with it, and the economy it supports.

If unbundled media is where we're headed, then unbundled advertising must necessarily follow. This is a scary concept, however, for there is no command and control mechanism or manipulable infrastructure in the unbundled world. The upside, though, is that it costs very little to participate. All that's necessary is the release what I call "ad pieces" into the seeming chaos of the internet, where other businesses will take those pieces and reassemble them when summoned by customers who are trading their scarcity for information they actually want."
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(thanks, Dan)

Original Post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2006/04/concept-unbundled-advertising-in-age.html