The Flexability of Paper

All across the country, we hear about layoffs, and the media world is no different. Recently, our local paper has had several rounds, across all departments.

Many local media planners and buyers incorporate newspaper into their initiatives, and at Kazoo we are no different. We purchase newsprint across the region, and there are many things I have seen emerging over the last few years.

Newspapers often seem to be on the defense with marketers. Instead of working together to tailor an aggressive rate package, they continue to raise their rates every year, and spend most of their time defending their cost increase, instead of making themselves flexible.

Subscription numbers are down, the demographic is continually getting older, and now, with major layoffs across the board, the content is going to start to suffer.

More and more, it begs the question- if major changes are not made at the print level, what IS the future of newsprint?

Obama- Marketing Machine

On this historic day, I thought I would reflect back a little bit on the marketing efforts put forth by Barack Obama. He has been revolutionary in many ways, not the least bit of which is all the new mediums he has dabbled in.

Of course, traditional media has been used a lot, but on top of that, Obama has noted the importance of the youth vote, and therefore, has explored many areas others have not dreamed of. These, partnered up with more main stream targets might be what propels him to victory (it is 3:30pm, so still too early to tell.)

* Twitter- if you follow Obama, you not only got updates on his campaign stops, but you were also notified of his pick of Joe Biden as the Vice-Presidential nominee.
* Email Blasts- practically every day, email blasts were sent out from the Obamas or Bidens, touting milestones and events throughout the campaign.
* Video Games- Obama is the first candidate to run advertising in some popular video games.
* Infomercial- In an last effort to get his message out to the masses, Obama purchased a 30 minute commercial on several networks, drawing in 30+ million viewers.
* Social Groups on Facebook/ MySpace- fans were able to share their love of Obama through various ways, including "flair", etc.
* Banner Ads- targeted demographically and geographically, banner ads ran on many sites across the Internet.

I am sure there are more, but these are the ones that come to mind first. Obama, with his logo, message, advertising campaign, etc. created a brand for himself. This brand has infused a passion into his followers like I have never seen in my lifetime, but one that I hope to see again and again.