News reports this past week have media and tech giants Sony, Google, and Intel collaborating on an interesting project: Google TV. The wrappers are expected to come off in the next few months, so this project is almost ready for delivery to the public.
After first hearing this news, my immediate response was that this story was big …. so big, in fact, that I decided to wait and see how it plays out in the traditional media. Three elephants in a room …. how would the traditional television media handle this news? What are the ramifications of this collaboration? How do the ads on my computer always know my age? …. is this type of customized, targeted advertising delivery ready for “prime time”? Can the Madison Avenue advertising industry survive “real” numbers …. as opposed to “potential viewership” numbers?
Today I received a very nice catalog in the mail from Sony Electronics. 30 plus pages that promote 3 basic consumer product lines: Video cameras, computers, and televisions. And the big surprise…. the media brandings that were being promoted within the pages of the catalog were not CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, etc. Instead, they were promoting that their product be used with facebook, YouTube, Netflix, accuweather.com, nytimes.com, and Crackle ….Is this change of media providers due to a shift in consumer preferences? …. or was this advertising specifically targeted to me?
For media history buffs, do you remember when all things radio and television were developed and controlled by an alliance of GE, RCA, and NBC? Well…. this is bigger.
There are three elephants in my living room ….. this could be interesting.
Gary Dennington 