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ASA website Guided Tour: New Media

ASA website Guided Tour: New Media

In-kind advertising for non-profit organizations

Digital Partnerships Could Revive, Energize Local Media

Local news, interests and connections between consumers and advertisers are at the heart of both the failing traditional media saddled with legacy costs and the nimble Web-based contenders. The value of all things local has been woefully underestimated. It has been devalued in print and television, which can't quite make the leap to digital, and botched on the Internet--where it seems impossible to capitalize on the hyperpersonal in bloggers and tweeters run amok. What could be more relevant than what is going on in consumers' own backyard? Institutional media (newspapers and TV stations) has failed to connect with local as it is being redefined by consumers who are obsessing over the interactive ME-dia they care about most: their needs, family and friends. "The future of local is intensely personal. It is about what is within 1,000 feet of where you stand. Local is centered on the individual," says Outside.in CEO Mark Josephson

The shift of core ad dollars to digital could be even more pronounced if the major traditional media are not able to integrate new interactive products into their bundle. Holding on to advertiser and consumers isn't enough; everyone must be interactively engaged. 

The Buzz Starts Here: Finding the First Mouth for Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Call it viral, buzz or word-of-mouth advertising: Getting customers to spread the word about a new product through their social or professional networks is a hot strategy in the marketing world. Its proponents insist that the technique -- whether online or face-to-face -- is sure to boost a company's return on investment (ROI).

In 1981, Garrison Keillor, the popular host of Minnesota Public Radio’s satirical “A Prairie Home Companion,” offered listeners a free poster of his mythical sponsor’s “Powdermilk Biscuits.” To everyone’s surprise, more than 50,000 requests poured in; the station faced a $60,000 printing bill. To avert “financial disaster,” as MPR president William Kling later recalled, the station used the back of the poster to advertise products for sale, such as a Powdermilk Biscuits T-shirt. The idea worked. “I think we netted off that poster, which was really our first catalog, $15,000 or $20,000,” Kling said. “It instantly became clear that there were things like that you could do.”1