While I sometimes shudder at the thought that it has been 20+ years since I graduated college as a communications major, the extent to which the media world has changed just amazes me. When I ventured into the real world in the mid 80's, ABC, NBC and CBS ruled the roost, newspapers were still in their heyday and no one had ever heard of the internet.
It's a different world today....and nothing hammers that point home more profoundly than Twitter's impact on the events in Iran these past several days. And a few months ago who knew what a Twitter was?
Someone asked me recently for my opinion on what's next in terms of the how we mass communicate.
Good question...and one I certainly can't answer. But looking at the question from a business standpoint, the one thing that remains as certain now as it was back in the mid 80's is the need for businesses to communicate their sales message to clients and prospective clients.
But, just what the best mediums will be for delivering that message, say one, five or ten years from now, is to me uncertain. Certainly social networking is big right now, but remember My Space? Two years ago it was the place to be. A few days ago they laid off 30% of their workforce with more cuts reportedly coming.
Facebook kind of superseded My Space around the start of 2009, but over the last couple of months, Twitter has exploded on the scene. And given it's key role in delivering news about the chaos in Iran, it doesn't look like Twitter's momentum is going to slow anytime soon. But six months or a year from now, who knows?
Look at what else has been going on in the media world. The days of the newspaper (key phrase being 'paper') getting delivered to your front door...and in fact the days of several big city Daily papers like the Boston Globe... may well be numbered. Direct mail coupons? The US Postal Service is losing money hand over fist and its future could be very cloudy. Radio, the original word of mouth advertising medium, may not exist in its current form for a whole lot longer. (Ever hear of Pandora or Slacker?) And the broadcast networks like ABC/NBC etc are nowhere near as popular as they used to be and who knows what the future will bring for them.
My point is that with this sea of change going on in the way we communicate with each other, there is one medium that remains as strong and reliable as ever and that's Promotional Products.
Tangible, functional, and easily used to target a message at a specific, defined audience, the one thing that remains certain is that promotional products continue to be a valuable part of any marketing mix.
I don't see us weaning off the pen, coffee mug or T-Shirt anytime soon. However, I also don't think we can say for certain which other forms of media will comprise that right mix for businesses over the long and even short term. 20+ years ago, the end of the newspaper as we've known it since colonial times was not on anyone's radar the way it is right now.
But regardless of the which media win out or maybe emerge in coming years, one thing I think we can safely say is that every day useful items that carry a marketing message will definitely NOT go out of style.
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