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There’s been a lot of talk (including in this blog) about how the evolution of the Internet is bringing about the death of traditional media and advertising. There’s also been a lot of strong disagreement about this prediction (admittedly largely from people who have a vested interest in the status quo).

I think there’s a lot of merit in both views, and the truth is somewhere in the middle. The disruption to traditional forms of communication is undeniable, and the implications are getting stronger every day. At the same time, death is such an extreme, loaded term. Just as people predicted the death of books when newspapers (and then movies, and then television, and then the Internet) came along, and then predicted the death of radio and movies when TV came along, followed by the death of TV when videos appeared, history (and logic) tells us that decline, but not death, is on the cards.

So if we’re going to be relying less on print ads, TV and radio spots, even online banner ads and buttons, how will companies get their message across to consumers? According to Rebecca Lieb, US vice president of the digital research and publishing outfit Econsultancy, we are in the middle of a fundamental shift from advertising to marketing.

Rebecca, who was interviewed by HotHouse content director Ray Welling for this month’s HotHouse podcast, says that not only has online search technology made it simple for customers to connect with businesses, the evidence shows that most searchers are going straight to a company’s website for more information about their products. In other words, it’s not advertising driving people to your business online, it’s search.

This is where the decline of advertising and traditional media comes in. Instead of relying on finding out about products and services via ads sandwiched around and between newspaper and magazine articles, TV and radio shows (or even, for that matter, on websites), consumers are increasingly sidestepping that and getting straight to the source by searching on Google.

The official term for this is a seven-syllable mouthful – disintermediation. It literally means not using mediators to complete desired tasks. And traditional media and advertising agencies have built their entire business model on serving as intermediaries, which is why they’re scrambling to stay relevant in this new environment.

Everyone’s a media company

So what are the implications for businesses in the 21st century? Basically, it means that the jobs of intermediaries such as the traditional media are being thrust upon companies themselves. In other words, as Rebecca Lieb says, “Brands are not just businesses; they’re now media companies.”

There has been a fair bit of discussion on this topic in Australia recently in forums such as Anthill magazine (see here and here), but that debate centres on shifting the media from large media conglomerates to small niche publishing businesses that are single-sponsored or ‘owned’ by corporations with an interest in the niche subject area.

But that still assumes that people will be consuming media from specialised media outlets. I think what we’ll find is that search engines will cut out the middle man and take people straight to companies, without a media outlet (owned or otherwise) in the middle.

Fresh content needed

Meanwhile, the rise of universal search – the inclusion of news, video and commerce results along with standard text content results – means that as well as making it more important to be on the first page of search results, it’s also more difficult to get and stay there.

So how do you do it? Rebecca, who as well as her publishing and consulting work has written the business best-seller “The Truth About Search Engine Optimization”, says that “Search engines like frequently updated content.” She also points out that gaining links to your pages from other websites boosts your search results and “fresher, brighter content is more likely to be linked to.”

Companies need to shift their thinking from an emphasis on advertising to an emphasis on marketing and content creation. She says that means there’s “lots more media to play with. And it’s free – but that doesn’t mean you can mess with it.”

So what do you need to do as a result? Rebecca Lieb says marketers need to change their mindset from short-term to long-term.

Marketers, she says, are used to thinking in terms of campaigns, which have a beginning, a middle and an end, then on to the next thing. She says most marketers struggle with ongoing marketing. “For example, look at most company newsletters: they have a great first issue, and then they’ve shot their wad.”

Content strategy needed

In the digital age, she says, you need a long-term perpetual strategy. To be able to successfully develop and execute a perpetual strategy, according to Rebecca, “You need to think like an editor.”

Your web presence is now, to use one of my favourite phrases, “the beast that must be fed”. To channel customers to your business, you need to have a content strategy.

That means things like introducing an annual editorial calendar for creating new content for your site, publishing regular features and what Rebecca terms “sticky stuff, like a horoscope or a crossword puzzle in the newspaper.”

Many companies that are embracing this shift are hiring ex-journalists that have made the transition from traditional media to this corporate marketing-driven information revolution.

It sounds more expensive, in terms of personnel and content creation, but the money to fund this activity is matched by a reduction in advertising spend as that option becomes less useful. Rebecca says that in the long run, however, companies will spend less on marketing overall. “Just look at the money Pepsi saved this year by not running their multi-million dollar Super Bowl ads. They spent an enormous amount on social media, but less than they did on straight advertising in previous years.”

But the traditional media based their business model on a (mostly) clear separation between advertising and content. What happens when the ‘advertiser’ is also the content provider?

In the digital context, according to Rebecca Lieb, “Being authoritative is more important than being objective – though transparency and disclosure are incredibly important.

“If, for example, you’re a sporting goods company and you publish information on your site about mountain climbing. That information can be entertaining. The information is not invalid, as long as you know where it’s coming from.”

Rebecca concludes: “The rules aren’t different; it’s the channels that are shifting.”

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Tags: econsultancy, podcast, Rebecca Lieb, search engine optimisation, SEO, TV