audience

(NOTE: I originally wrote this article in 2005 and was reminded of it this morning while surfing the net and dealing with autoplay videos. One more way that we try to capture, not captivate, the audience. And worse, they usually make them very hard to stop or turn off the sound. That little 'x' is so hard to tap, that you end up opening the brand website and I'll put money on the fact that their agency calls it a win. 

I did like this new TED talk from activist-performer-singer-songwriter-blogger-provocateur (people who defy description make me happy) Amanda Palmer. She talks evocatively about the art of asking for support (financial and otherwise) from your following, and how that process can help build powerful connections with people. She calls it 'falling into the audience' which is a description I immediately loved.

Today marks the start of Pubcon 2012, and I’ll be functioning in the roles of speaker, panelist, panel moderator, and audience member. Thanks to Eric Bergman’s 5 Steps to Conquer “Death by PowerPoint,” I’ll be observing a metric I’ve never paid attention to before: each speaker’s Q-ratio.

I love being a scholar, but one thing that really depresses me about research is that so much of what scholars produce is rendered inaccessible to so many people who might find it valuable, inspiring, or thought-provoking. This is at the root of what drives my commitment to open-access.

Guest Post by: Ravali Ravulapati

I have to admit, I usually don’t have too much time to watch TV. But when I do, I usually watch shows that don’t require much focus and after a long day of work I often resort to reality shows or random celebrity news. However, I think I can justify this by saying that I have taken away a few “marketing” lessons from these shows or celebrities. Whether its reality TV, Food Network or watching E!, there are valuable lessons these “celebrities” can teach us marketing professionals.

We know that audiences are engaged in all kinds of practices online that change the ways they relate to one another and to the things they’re into. But how does all that affect the people they’re talking about – and sometimes talking to?

Nielsen has published some data about the TV audiences in the US.

The ‘average’ American watched 34 hours 39 minutes of TV per week in Q4 2010, a year-over-year increase of two minutes. Not 1 minute or 3 minutes but 2 minutes. Wow

Guest Post by: Monica Shaw

Last year we worked on an interesting project with Bushmills Whiskey who were producing a marketing campaign called “Bushmills Brothers”. Their goal: get more young guys choosing Bushmills as their drink of choice when out on the town with their mates.

I was somewhat entertained during parts of last night's 83rd Academy Awards show (promoted as "Oscar" this year), but far more struck by how irrelevant it has become. It used to matter much more, and fit into a broader continuum of community and engagement.

Last week I gave a talk at by:Larm, Norway’s premiere music industry conference and festival. I was invited by GramArt, a nonprofit that works to help musicians, to talk about musicians and social media. If you click here you can download a PDF of the slides and notes from my talk.