Last night, after much speculation and grandstanding, LeBron James announced which NBA team he’d join via free agency. Congrats, Miami. At last, closure. Finally, the news, blogs and spam emails I enjoy every day can return to normal.

Mr. James’ decision — or the LeBronocalypse, as some have called it — goes beyond the public’s obsession with celebrity, entertainment and trending topics.

Love it or hate it, King James demonstrated how one brand (no doubt an international brand with global popularity and unprecedented access to the press) can overwhelmingly set the agenda for content and conversations, across all media.

The aftermath of “The Decision” speaks to the fragile nature of how the public perceives a brand. Overnight, James went from being a top attraction in the NBA — and one of the good guys — to a self-absorbed narcissist in the eyes of many and even a traitor (especially in Cleveland).

Brands and agencies should take note: One action, one press conference, one message can impact the goodwill, the momentum, the standing that your brand has worked hard to achieve. Sure, time — and PR efforts — heal wounds. But make no mistake: last night’s broadcast was a case study in what brands shouldn’t do.

And we are all witnesses.   

 

California legislators are considering legislation that would lay the groundwork for digital license plates. When a vehicle is in motion, the devices would function as normal license plates; however, when the vehicle stops, they would switch to digital messages (from Amber Alerts to ads). Supporters of the bill say selling ad space could curtail some of the state’s massive budget shortfall.

If the bill is passed and digital license plates become reality, what should marketers keep in mind?

The Novelty Factor
The public space is crowded with advertising messages, many of which the public has learned to tune out. In the short term, a new ad placement such as this will no doubt generate buzz.

Brand Consistency
For luxury brands, digital license plate ads might look great on a late model Jaguar but what about an older Civic with a customized cardboard spoiler on it? Is VIN targeting next?

Too Much Exposure?
Not all brand impressions are created equal. Imagine gridlocked traffic where every time you step on the brakes you see the same ad on the car in front of you. Again. And again. That's a new level of road rage. 

 

While the announcement of the iPhone 4 may have received most of the buzz yesterday, new details about Apple’s iAd platform were revealed that just might shake mobile advertising to its core.

If you haven’t heard about iAd, which Jobs stated will offer advertisers “the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of the web”, it provides for ads to be displayed within downloaded applications. Apple is reporting that it has $60 Million in commitments to its new mobile advertising platform that launches on July 1.

Good news for app developers: they get to pocket 60% of the ad revenue from their apps.

But how will iAd change mobile advertising for advertisers?

A New Ad Model for New Times
Is this the end of dominance for search advertising? As the public increasingly uses applications to acquire information, their reliance on search decreases. Advertisers will have to duplicate media buys.

New Pricing and Production Processes
For the time being, Ad Age has reported that Apple will charge for both impressions and click-throughs upfront — a departure from traditional media buys.  Also, advertisers and agencies will have to grow accustomed to iAd's JS library in order to bundle assets for ad delivery. Given Apple's recent perspective, it should come as no surprise that HTML 5 is preferred. 

Targeting Customers
Ads can be targeted based on the demographics of who’s likely to download to the app. With more than 200,000 apps in App Store’s categories, targeting niches would appear to be relatively easy.

Will It Be a Success?
Whether people will engage with advertising as they’re watching videos or playing games on their iPhones remains to be seen. But it’s hard to argue against Apple’s track record. iPhone sales are expected to grow again this year, and numerous other advertisers have already found success with in-game advertising, which some have estimated will hit $1 Billion annually by 2014.

How do you think iAd will affect mobile advertising going forward?

 

These days there’s an app for absolutely everything (if you haven’t already heard). AT&T’s free Mark the Spot app for the iPhone brings the country’s app obsession to a new arena: Customer Support.

Customers use Mark the Spot to report dead zones and locations of poor audio quality to AT&T. So when you’re on your phone and the call drops (and you embarrassingly find yourself talking to, well, yourself), just pull up the app and report it.

The AT&T application is an interesting take on customer support crowdsourcing and proactive PR. For marketers, there are plenty of reasons to crowdsource for customer support information.

Show your attentiveness: You know the old saying that the customer is always right? It still holds up today. When you allow customers to participate, you affirm your commitment to them and strengthen your brand’s relationship with the public.  

Increase transparency: Audiences are all-too-familiar with the bravado and over-promises of companies’ marketing claims. And odds are they’ve spent several hours of their lives on hold with customer service. Apps such as Mark the Spot not only let users control the pace of the customer support experience — they show that while your company isn’t perfect, you’re doing your best to improve the customer experience.

Foster dialogue: Online, conversation is the name of the game. Applications can provide customers with new, easy-to-use forums to share their thoughts and opinions with companies. Candid customer feedback is an invaluable asset for companies as they evaluate their product lines and develop new offerings.

Slash costs: An obvious one, but still important. Compared to the costs of staffing a call center, applications are a cost-effective way to gather and document customer feedback.

In a do-it-yourself era, customers are willing and able to help — especially when their efforts will result in improved products and services. Marketers should take note. 

 

Major media conglomerates Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc. recently announced that they are forming a coalition to produce a digital storefront to sell their content in digital form — and challenge eReaders such as Amazon’s Kindle. In a time when major newspapers are collapsing and magazine subscriptions are plummeting, who can blame them for washing their ink-stained hands and trying something new?

The plans for the digital storefront would enable publishers to bundle eReader content with print subscriptions. Eventually content such as paid blogs, books and newsletters would be available for purchase. Beyond the store, the consortium of media moguls hopes to create a common reading application, publishing platform for multiple devices, operating systems and screen sizes; a digital storefront; and advertising opportunities. In short, they’re proposing new standards for the distribution and consumption of digital content.

The venture, still in its infancy, is little more than an idea at the moment, but its future success depends largely on the value that we, the public, assign to the content and information we consume.

The Good Old Days

For years, the public was accustomed to paying for news, unfolding a newspaper to learn about the events of the day. Then the internet came along, and in an attempt to compete with free online news outlets, many (probably most) newspapers and magazines began to give their content away for free online. Rather than stick to their core expertise and provide something that free outlets couldn’t provide — dedicated, trained resources to do more in-depth, thoroughly researched, nuanced and targeted reporting — they tried to outpace the instantaneous updates of the internet.

The Road Ahead

I believe that people are still willing to pay for content they find valuable, but how exactly do we value information these days? In an age where there are endless media outlets, people are accustomed to getting information from a variety of sources: public radio, bloggers, online newspapers, following people on Twitter, etc. Many new media sources have supplanted traditional news outlets and are a trusted source of information. As digital technology levels access to diverse news sources, it will be interesting to see how the traditional heavy hitters play it out. Some have already found success.  

The Wall Street Journal uses a pay wall that keeps most of its general-interest content free and available to the general public, while charging a premium for its premium financial reporting. ESPN uses a similar pay wall tactic, the New York Times once did and is considering using it again and many magazine publishers offer premium online content to print subscribers.

It will be interesting to see how the mega media venture affects how the public consumes information and how publishers attract advertising dollars. Will an easy-to access storefront open opportunities for new points of view? We’ll have to wait to see what shakes out.