I got turned on to an Ad Age article that ran last week on Bob Garfield’s book “The Chaos Scenario” where he muses about the the demise of traditional media and subsequently traditional advertising. It is a little depressing (ok, it’s a lot depressing). And for anyone with friends in the ad business, it is very real (shout out to our brethren).

The article points out some sobering stats on how the current downturn is impacting newspapers, magazines, broadcast, and cable. Here are some of the low-lights:
- Amid 23% population growth in the past two decades, U.S. newspaper circulation has dropped 20%
- Bernstein Research predicts a 20% to 30% drop in 2009 TV station ad revenue

The article also discusses how many of the top web sites have these massive audiences, but they need a plan for monetizing their offering. How do you market to a highly savvy and skeptical audience, who believe all online material should be free, in a manner that does not alienate them.

For a little perspective, here is another interesting stat from the Daily Telegraph:
- In 2007 You Tube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000

We have all been talking about this for years, but it does appear that the recession is accelerating the shift. Advertisers have less money to create TV spots and pay mass media dollars, but still need to have a share of voice, and drive revenue, and prove ROI.

This topic has been coming up a lot lately, and clients have been turning to us to help them figure out what to do when the local newspaper isn’t around at the end of the year.

So where’s the proverbial silver lining? I guess that when things are this dismal and everyone agrees about the need for change, there is a chance to break the mold. It happened during the Great Depression. It is happening now. The federalization of financial institutions, the vote for change, the new-new deal, and the new nu-wave.

So let’s break the mold. Let’s get people to engage with your brand in a relevant, meaningful manner. Let’s shift from talking at them, to talking to them, with them, and listening – to adding value. This, of course, is what the Internet is good at (if used properly). Engaging our customers by providing valuable, relevant, and compelling content or interactions. This is nothing new, and there are a ton of examples out there on how to do this effectively – and a few can be found on this Web site (Subservient Chicken, CNN T-Shirts, Kashi, Getty Images Moodstream, etc.).

The old Chinese proverb says “may you live in interesting times”. Guess we can check that one off the list. So let’s face it head on, embrace it, and make something of it. Because we can no longer sweep it under the carpet and pretend it isn’t there.