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The Future of Media

Official blog of the Interpublic Emerging Media Lab, a center for cutting-edge marketing innovation.

Recession is official…since last yearToday

All those who have been saying the R word for the past few months finally got their Told-You-So moment Monday when it was announced the U.S. economy has been in a recession since December of 2007. The National Bureau of Economic Research (the non-profit research group known for determining the start and end dates of recessions), made its assessment based on evidence that the Gross Domestic Product has declined for two consecutive quarters, and may be set to last well through the end of 2009.

Not to scare anyone, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride. According to AP, the consensus among economists is that it will be the “most severe slump since the 1981-82 recession.”

For the marketing and advertising world, we’ll be publishing regularly on how companies and agencies can use emerging media to get the most bang for their buck in a difficult spending environment. We at the Lab believe the economic downturn could provide the perfect opportunity for brands to get creative about their media buys. So stay tuned and send us your thoughts on how agencies

Xbox360 - ready to replace cable?November 26

On November 19th, Microsoft released an update to the Xbox360 platform dubbed NXE. The moniker is short for New Xbox Experience. The smooth, new interface deepens the integration with the Xbox Live Marketplace and brings to the platform similar graphical navigation found on Windows Vista. The remodeled environment presents a much more media-centric twist to the experience. Doubtless, this was the goal.

In the game consoles arena, the Xbox 360 has always stood out in terms of it’s use as a media content platform. Within the interface, as much real-estate is given over to media as gaming. This is especially true of the new NXE interface which does a superb job of blurring the lines between on-line media and locally available content.

By comparison, the Playstation3’s Avatar-based Sony Home, while certainly fun to use, is very game-like. And although that will probably appeal to their gamer constituency, it a little top-heavy for the average media consumer.

This divergence in experiences will likely further polarize the audience for the two consoles.

To further secure the Xbox360 as a media device, The NXE interface now includes

comScore’s top 50 websites, with some surprisesNovember 21

The top U.S. websites in October show the election, the economy and the holiday season impacting web traffic, according to comScore’s latest numbers. There are several points worth noting, but the most interesting comScore data reveals the top 10 sites by increased traffic.

Street.com sites (stock and finance news) rose 155% since September, certainly receiving a boost from the volatile financial market. Strange-stuff purveyor Spencer Gifts LLC (where you can buy everything from a two liter “beer boot” or a “Carmen Electra professional pole” dancing kit) is the one I have the most trouble conceiving of growing traffic by 144%. The upcoming holidays are sure to thank for the boost, but still, Spencer, por favor, tell us how you did it.

Hulu.com also shows an 87% increase in traffic, followed by two health sites, Healthgrades (a hospital, doctor and nursing home ratings site that is great except for the fact they make users pay $12 per report, boo) and Everyday Health which logged over 70% growth.

See the complete top 10 chart after the jump.

comScore Top

Sexy Tech Trifecta: Yang’s out, mobile is inNovember 18

This week has been full of sexy and controversial items for our weekly Tech Trifecta.

1. Yang ousted by Yahoo board: The big news from the Silicon Valley (other than the fact that Google’s shares dipped below $300, cry me a river) is that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang finally got his walking papers. In Sam Cooke’s words, it was a long time coming, and hopefully, the internet giant will be better for the wear. A no-nonsense CEO who is more removed from the company’s dysfunctional recent past would be a good start to replacing Yang. Yahoo still has a lot to offer their users and publishers, it just has to get rid of some ineffective managers, focus on making money, and streamlining the massive bureaucracy. In the meantime, keep your eyes on Microsoft’s next move, now that Yang is gone.

2. Mark Cuban accused of inside trading by SEC: It was perhaps inevitable that a personality like Mark Cuban would come under fire for financial dealings; Martha Stewart would not be the last celebrity entrepreneur to knit sweaters in a low security prison. According to Bloomberg.com, the lawsuit alleges that the Dallas Mavericks owner sold his shares in Mamma.com “after learning the company was going to sell shares belo

OOH marketers, don’t panic!November 13

I was a little concerned when I read some of the articles about Nielsen suspending their Out of Home research division this week. So I was relieved to see this letter in my inbox from Suzanne Alecia OVAB President, clarifying the situation:

“There has been a lot of conversation and confusion this week on the recent news that Nielsen was discontinuing their out-of-home service because of the lack of interest in the OOH marketplace from their clients.

I have had extensive conversations with Paul Lindstrom at Nielsen and we’re working on making some clarifications with the press. In the meantime, I wanted to make sure that you had the background so that as you get questions (and I know many of you have), you can set the record straight.

The service that Nielsen provided, in concert with a technology firm IMMI, was designed to measure OOH audiences to regular broadcast and cable programming. Since developing the service, only two clients subscribed to it and so the decision was made to suspend it. While this service may have ceased for now, Nielsen is still very much committed to out-of-home research through their On Location Media service. The difference between the two is the former measured only out of home viewership to broadcast and cable TV shows. Nielsen On Location M