Are we so uncertain about what media is now because we can't figure out how to sell effective advertising on all of it anymore?
    
There has also been a lot of buzz about comments Joe Talcott (Chair of the Australian Association of National Advertisers, and head of marketing at News Limited) made at a forum held by the AANA (as reported in The Australian), comparing banner ads to beer coasters. 

"The internet is not a medium," Mr Talcott said. "It's a place where people do stuff."  "There ís media on the internet, no question," he said.  "No one sits down to 'watch the internet.'"

"Social networks should not be compared with TV and radio; they should be compared with socialising," he said.  "To some degree, banner ads are like pub coasters - they're ads that appear when you're socialising and I reckon they get about the same amount of attention."

Talcott said online activities such as banking, online shopping, research for online shopping, even time spent on Facebook should be excluded in research tracking time spent online.  This sparked a heated debate on Ben Shepherd's Talking Digital  blog.

We hear so much from social media gurus in T-shirts, that it's kind of refreshing to hear from a grown up marketer once in a while.  But isn't media simply content that people can read, watch, search and comment on?  Are we so uncertain about what media is now because we can't figure out how to sell effective advertising on all of it anymore? Many media owners are like deer in the headlights of ad networks selling commoditised inventory, social media sites, and Google.  "Given so much traffic to almost all sites comes from Google, you have to think that many sites are serving a role as a brandless information fulfillment channel rather than a trusted media brand that is turned to by a loyal audience." (Ben Shepherd, Talking Digital).

I see too many media brands that get caught up in fear and uncertainty about the exponential increase in competition around them, and don't spend enough time aggressively hammering home the benefits of their brand in the market. What makes your brand/site/offerings special? Who is your unique audience and how do they use your site? How do you measure your audience? Show me case studies of successful campaigns.

We've been telling the story of the changing media landscape, due to digital technology, a lot lately.  Debates like the above highlight the confusion about what media is becoming - even among digital industry thinkers. So, if "digital" is relatively new to you, don't be put off by this - none of us really understand where media will end up - but we can all be part of its evolution.

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