Outsell’s Marc Strohlein was at the Online Media, Marketing and Advertising (OMMA) conference this week and reported a “déjà vu all over again” experience. Many of the themes were exactly the same as those at the SIIA Information Industry Summit earlier this year, even though the audience was completely different. The opening keynote was called “What Could Destroy Us,” and phrases like “media dust” and “destructive forces” were common in presentations and panels. A talk by Bob Garfield, editor-at-large of Advertising Age, was titled: “The Chaos Scenario: What Happens if the Old Media/Marketing Model Collapses before the New One Is Ready?” He actually predicts a bright future for the next generation of marketing and media, except for one problem - we need it now, and it isn’t even close to being ready. He cited a number of barriers to this bright future, including legislation and IP concerns, inadequate technology infrastructure, and poor-quality online content. He predicts that advertising dollars will flee traditional media but will have nowhere to go because the alternatives are so fragmented and immature: hence the chaos scenario. In Outsell’s opinion – if it’s any consolation - marketing people aren’t doing much better than publishers/aggregators in coming to grips with the wrenching changes caused by the Internet.
