There's a great Babe Ruth story that's been told a hundred different ways - but it goes something like this: A group of sports writers are on a train headed for Spring training for the Yankees. To pass the time, they're playing cards. Suddenly, Babe Ruth - a notorious womanizer (and nude in most of the versions) comes bursting through the door in a mad hurry. 5 feet behind him is a woman chasing him with a butcher knife.
As they pass the group of sports writers, one says to the others - "geez, if she catches him, we'll have to actually write something". And, then they go back to their card game. The story left to legend.
Can you imagine that happening today? Within hours, there'd be thousands of TwitPics posted, blogs featuring candid photos and video. Wolf Blitzer would be in the Situation Room, Glenn Beck would weep, the scorned woman would be represented by Gloria Allred and the Today Show would devote a special hour to Dan Abrams and the legal situation both find themselves in.
If you're not ready for the Real-Time world - get ready - because this week felt like the tipping point.
This week the news was filled with stories of the real-time world of media consumption finally taking hold.
Of course there was the Tiger Woods story - and this is the story which really sealed it for me. The amount of coverage over one man's fender bender was simply breathtaking. And, the quest for all of the media to produce real-time coverage of the events was simply ridiculous. It got to such an absurd point, that the Daily Show dubbed it "Newsak" and did an amazing piece setting it to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (this is a must watch).
But then there were also these moves last week:
Google acquired EtherPad - a software that provides "real-time" word processing. You've all, no doubt, heard a bit about Google Wave - the real-time collaborative content sharing service that Google recently has put into beta. Well, EtherPad's technology could empower Google to employ real-time word processing into that environment.
Then, also from Google (definitely a trend here) they are now offering real-time finance newsstreaming. This will be finance news streamed to your screen - not unlike the way you see Friendfeed posts come onto your screen today. And, finally if you haven't seen this article on "Nowism" from Trendwatching, it's worth it. They define Nowism as a "lust for instant gratification... being satisfied by a host of novel, important (offline and online) real-time products, services and experiences"
So, what does this mean to marketers?
The world of consumer media consumption and decision-making is shrinking. 2010 is going to be a year, when we need to radically re-think the way we plan, budget, place media and adapt to an ever-shifting landscape of marketing strategy.
Take a look at this video from Ad Age. In it, Rob Katz - the CEO of Vail Resorts, explains how they have completely abandoned long-term advertising strategies and built a new marketing engine that uses the immediacy of social media, search and other digital marketing to quickly adapt to the real-time landscape. My favorite quotes from his speech:
"Last year, people went from deciding 4 or 6 months in advance to take a ski vacation.... to 2 weeks".
"This real-time decision making is not going to go away..."
"One of the most important aspects of social media is that it has changed the way you can get a message to your customers"
This is extraordinarily important for us as marketers now. The cycle in which we strategize, plan, budget, execute and adapt - has shortened almost to the point of being in real-time. As Katz states later on in his speech - trying to guess where the real world will be four months from now is impossible. And, developing a message that will hopefully resonate with customers four months in advance is ineffective at best and dangerous at worst.
Katz goes on to talk about the fundamental shift he and his team have taken - to the point of last year spending 80% of their budget prior to ski season. This year, that 80% still sits in a reserve - ready to be spent. They literally take a week by week look at a messaging calendar.
As we put together our "plans" for 2010 - let's make sure we are not taking the traditional way of market planning. Rather, we should be building a new, effective "process" that enables us to execute a broad, long term strategy by being able to adapt quickly. This means that we need to have tools and processes in place that allow us to execute and publish messages quickly and to every device that our consumers utilize. It means we need to have metrics and analytics in place that give us quick dashboards and insight into how those messages are resonating. And, finally, it means we need to have the internal permission and stakeholder buy-in to fail quickly, adapt effectively and have meaningful conversations with our prospective customers.
Now, if you'll excuse me... I have to run... My blackberry just buzzed with tweets from breaking news... I think Tiger has just been spotted having breakfast...
