Comments on: Could SME business owners soon become the new media barons?

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:00:07 +0000

I would like to share a short story about it…
Brittany always loved going to sports events and concerts, but she always settled for the cheap seats because there was no way she could afford to pay a broker 3x face value for good seats! she couldn't believe it when she searched and saw tickets selling for 3x face value (or more!) Then it donned on her that she could be doing the same thing, making good money doing it, and enjoying games and concerts even more with the good seats she would be able to get. So she decided to start buying and selling tickets back in 2006 to help put her through University (UFV), while she got her business degree. She love following the ticket marketplace and buying great seats and being able to make double her money or even more. It's a really exciting business and perfect for anybody in University, or that wants to work at home, or doesn't have a lot of money to start up their own traditional business. She bought her first pair of tickets for $150 and started reinvesting her profits so she could buy and sell more and more.
Learning this business took a lot of hard work though, because there was no guide out there to show her how buy and sell tickets successfully…
Source: The Ticket Broker Guide

By: James Tuckerman

James Tuckerman — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:35:18 +0000

I’m only adding this comment so that my article gets more comments than Leela’s (http://anthillonline.com/your-clients-are-morons/#comment-30009).

Nah nah nee nah nah!

By: Dan Callum

Dan Callum — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:41:20 +0000

Sorry, here’s the link for those looking for PR tools or free Social Media Press Release Service http://prlink.com.au/pricing.html
I also highly recommend Mumbrella, Copyblogger, and Problogger to learn online media from the pros

By: Dan Callum

Dan Callum — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:38:50 +0000

James, great job on the new whitespace PLUS site – I love it and I think you should keep pushing the boundaries. Between you and Burrows our PR colleagues have binned the bant’s and adnews for months. Cheers, Dan

By: Dan Callum

Dan Callum — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:36:12 +0000

Very insightful analysis of the power some very small “accidental” media heroes are wielding these days. My firm has found a massive kick of ordinary businesses learning about sending social media press releases, landing page techniques, copy strategies, all of which were once the domain of the ivory tower editors. Long live the SME PR Heroes! If you haven’t checked out what’s possible visit a few free tool tabs at prlink australia where we give the guides away to help democratize the media.

By: Erik Unger

Erik Unger — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:19:08 +0000

A perfect example of doing that is Joel Spolsky’s blog http://www.joelonsoftware.com/

But it doesn’t scale for him as CEO of a growing company:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100301/lets-take-this-offline.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Spolsky

By: Umberto Righetti

Umberto Righetti — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:22:21 +0000

Great post james.

Historically media companies have built and owned the platforms with brands paying for the pleasure of temporarily using them (or as you said, renting) to try and get consumers’ attention.

Technology companies are creating digital marketing communication platforms that will allow brands to by-pass both media platforms and agencies (or use them as outsourced technicians).

A platform is useless without an audience so brands need to embrace technology to help them build these audiences. Then provide the audience with something they value to get their attention.

By: Danial

Danial — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:08:18 +0000

James I couldn’t agree more! In the modern world with the dominance of Google as a starting point for everyone’s online journey, and the subsequent power of SEO, the case for hiring your own journalists to create quality content to draw people to your own personal site (rather than Rupert Murdoch’s) continues to grow. Nowadays whenever I look at our advertising costs, google adwords included, the biggest question in my mind is …. “How many content writers could I buy for that?”. D.

By: Zac

Zac — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:31:01 +0000

Nice post James.

I think we’re seeing what you outline already. Brand funded content like Jack of all trades is becoming more and more prevalent on TV.

Everyone seems loves this type of content (except perhaps the audience…but then Leckie has argued recently with his ‘Courgartown is a sh*t show but we promoted it and got audiences as a result’ comments that they’re of secondary importance).

In online I don’t think it’ll be brands who own the media as much as media planners (the guys who control the brand’s spend).

Already there are demand-networks sprouting up left right and centre. Unlike supply networks (eg, Ad2One) which have a heap of online inventory they’re trying to sell, demand networks allow media planners to selectively call up inventory from a series of sites as and when their schedule requires that inventory.

They ‘own’ the network, though not necessarily the end sites, and so share in the upside on the spend.

It’s a very interesting area and your post reflects the massive change we’re seeing right across the media scape.

By: kimberly

kimberly — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:02:07 +0000

James – I think there is HUGE opportunity in what you’ve outlined, especially if someone is ‘the first’ or even the second or third.

As you make your argument, it’s clear that it’s not even that “radical” a concept, but sadly I think it would take a lot of vision for a business to do it. And a lot of busineses tend to lack vision.

Most organisations are pitiful at building -and then talking to – their own databases, a pretty basic opportunity that goes begging in many businesses I come across.

So I think the challenge has been issued – now who is going to be brave (and savvy) enough to take their marketing budget and do something REALLY creative with it…

By: Internet Marketing Class

Internet Marketing Class — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:10:28 +0000

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