Moderator: Limor Schafman
Natali Del Conte – C|Net
Allison Mooney – Fleishman Hillard’s Youth & Mobile Marketing (Next Great Thing)
Kelly Hafner – WEtv
Romina Rosado -The News Market
Mindy Spire -WWE
Limor: Convergence of Media, content, people (community) sector
All three coming together to create a new level of story, interaction that we haven’t seen.
We’re also going to address the age and gender issues.
Kelly: Excited about the number of women being engaged with the new media
Allison: got into the field because she saw the way her friends were using new forms of communications – was interested in how brands can be involved in a valuable way in young people’s lives. This is an exciting time to get in on the leading edge.
Mindy: Director of Sales and Marketing for WWE.com and marketing solutions for advertisers or sponsors. Also gets to work with product development to drive features to the website. So many assets at her fingers for a global brand. Hosting interactive events, enhances storylines online.
Natali – Hosts “Loaded” on C|Net – was a print journalist and was convinced to try on camera journalism. The linkage between CBS and C|Net – old and new converging.
Romina – Newsmarket – a platforms that advises brands, ngos and government about how to get their messages out effectively. Interactivity and tools for consumers to communicate with brands, and other stakeholders to communicate with each other is exciting.
Limor: What are tools that companies are doing to differentiate and create value for consumers?
Natali: In early part of decade – we saw UGC and user video become more popular. Community was interesting, but ‘just picking your nose on youtube’ isn’t really the valuable stuff.
Bringing professionalism to the internet is important. You can’t make money from your baby dancing to prince on youtube.
Allison: Branded utility – how to provide value to customers – don’t just distract people with a popup. Give them somthing they love. Itunes – organizes and helps facilitate discovery. Nike – helping people to keep track of workouts.
Twitter Channels – providing info for fans of a brand.
These can enhance rather than distract.
Kelly: Tug of war between traditional content producers and digital team at WE. In development of traditional media – no greenlighting anything that the digital team doesn’t approve. There are new opportunites, creative and branded integration. Just relaunched the site to be a content site, and not a promotional site. Original programming for the web for women in different life stages.
Mindy: WWE is a unique brand. Competition is weaved into story, differently than other sports. They don’t see themselves fitting in other sports generes. They own their own talent, brand, all content.
They’re looking to transform their platform so fans can have similar experience to their live events. Incorporating video, other live stuff. Fan social network. Nearly 40% of the audience for WWE is women.
Limor: What is it about these media that are really engaging women?
Mindy: WWE sports entertainment – competition in story. Women are attracted to story and human condition, men attracted to competition and thrills.
Natali: Majority of audience are men. The bellweather of her reporting is her mom. If mom doesn’t understand it, she’s not explaining it clearly. Aspire (CNET) to be general news place. Have to talk to women culturally and make sense and experiential.
Allison: Mom once called computer an email machine. But now a 10 year old can be the IT director of a house. Teens and 20 somethings are looking for experiences rather than content.
Limor: So content is a step-off point?
ALlison: yes, emergence of newsmasters, people who can boil down streams of info for their friends.
Kelly: Women love weddings, how to put on parties, etc. But women are story-driven. They want true stories, like “Secret Lives of Women.” Women are into emotional connections and transformations – so we’ll be putting out some new shows to transform lives in emotional and even spiritual ways.
Limor: What are most effective digital tools to help that?
Kelly: In terms of develoment process, we get pitches that should go direct to air, but other ideas seem more suited to go to the web first, in a ‘snacking’ kind of way. They also have channels for their bridal, stories/secrets blogging, etc.
Mindy: In addition to communication and interactivity, we notice the sense of empowerment for women. We have various talent, male and female, and find that on the web or in TV, or in magazine, when there’s a situation with conflict between a man and a women, the woman will always prevail, and the female and male audience seem to take to it. Encourage the story lines of women to take control of programming, like a woman running the RAW series. Female talent exciting for me, empowering for women.
Limor: International perspective
Romina: Web is a great tool, and segmentation, brands communicating globally via the web. In China, where internet usage has a gender divide, but net allows some anonynimity that allows people to express themselves more. In some countries, women can’t drive but they can use the net to make connections.
Limor: How do men use the net, what’s the difference, from your companies perspective
Romania: Web 1.0 was male and transactional, Web 2.0 is more about relationship building, more apt for women, women like building communities, sharing experiences. Facebook 63% of users are female, also on MySpace. Women use forums and blogs for relationship building, while men use them more transactional.
Allison; Businessweek article about social media gender gap. Women active on FB – relationships yes, but also casual games. Women also about glitter, bling, pimp myspace page, etc.
Limor: Mobile is exciting – it’s another platform – what’s happening?
Allison: Mobile social networking is projected to be huge, but people use their Social Networks as address books – so you’ll want that on the go. If you’re somewhere you’re looking for a place to eat, recommendations, will be popular on mobile.
older women talking more on phone, younger ones texting each other, even when sitting next to each other, ring tones to customize. Women like to turn photos into wallpaper.
Limor: What are recommendations for companies?
Allison: Ask if mobile is right for your company. Are people active mobile users? Make sure campaigns are opt-in! Also make sure mobile is integrated in the marketing mix, that there’s made for mobile content that works. SMS campaigns – cheap and scalable, short codes will be on billboards and everywhere. Can also lead to couponing, etc. But make sure it’s an integrated challenge.
Natali: not everyone needs a mobile strategy – she disagrees. Mobile and Laptop convergence. In 5 years it won’t be it’s own thing. It will all be the same thing. Now you need a scalable mobile strategy, but if you don’t think about a ubiquitous take it anywhere strategy, you may be behind in a few years.
Romania: Key point – brands and companies, need to stop differentiating between traditional and digital media. We’ve had people ask us to help them create a ‘viral video’ which is nonsense. Whatever you do, your stuff needs to fit your whole image.
Continued>…
Mindy: Our demographic is 12-49, so we utilize mobile in 2 ways. From content perspective, a fully operational carrier friendly WAP site, but also from an entertainment standpoint – there is mobile in our story lines. Text in who should participate in a match, which changes story line.
Kelly: Not a lot of mobile at WE, but we’ve had a hard time thinking about how to monetize it.
Mindy: From a business standpoint, mobile can be partnership with our brands, since it is tough to work with carriers. It has been slower than with digital or online but it is evolving.
Allison: In Asia, more are leapfrogging directly to wireless/mobile, without even having computers. WAP and similar is important.
Natali: “THe future belongs to those who take the present for granted” – Clay Shirky. Act as if a tech has always existed. If you can’t, you’ll always be behind.
Q What is tension between online and on-air?
Kelly: We’re still paid on ratings, so there can be an internal divide between on air premieres and online sneak peaks. Also tension between having TV that shows on a particular night, vs having something available for VOD and them not watching and getting ratings.
Q Intrigued by 63% of FB users as being women. Natali – how are you capitalizing on that audience and reaching women?
Natali: We have an FB group, largely attended by men, but way that we promote Loaded and CNET in general is traditional. I’m on Today Show, Fox News, putting our faces out on traditional media and traditional PR will show it to women. Using Twitter and FB, but still largely talking to men.
Q: What are successes and strategies about treating media as an integrated unit, not just traditional and digital
Romania: In terms of integration, at newsmarket we work with brands. In last few years, brands don’t just ask to reach broadcast audience. They know people are accessing content everywhere. GM is integrating traditional, online, making communities, etc.
Allison: Cingular campaign – 3 screen approach. Cultivated artists on MySpace, fans voted as to who would play the prom on One Tree Hill, text to vote, they played the prom in the show.
Limor: What’s lacking for you?
Natali: I don’t want another socialnetwork. I am tired of migrating my friends over. When I was at PC Mag, was always being pitched. We wont’ see in the future the “next FB” but in the web everything will be social and have elements of interacting with others, and we’ll build on it.
Romania: More variety of content targeted at women. NYTimes article on Slumber party confidental? There is a really big opportuity for professional women-focused content.
Mindy: On day to day she focuses on digital, but leverages events, mobile and print. So, she reflects her own lifestyle, she utilizes events, phone, FB to help her network. At end of day, the individual will have to determine how she uses social networking for her own life and how she’ll maintain it.
Kelly: Wants more interesting content for women on the web. Yes, women like shoes and weddings, but women also want to learn, commuinicate and be activists. There’s an opportunity to prove stereotypes wrong. WOmen watch WWE, ICe Road Truckers, etc. Who would have guessed? Also excited about viewer generated content.
Allison: From personal perspective wants seamlessness between her phone and PC, but there are too many platforms, wants integration. OpenID and similar. Want all the Social networks to allow movement of content from one to the other.
as tv viewers shift to online, can you make up revenue from TV online?
For Natali: as shift occurs, what do you need to do at CNET to keep user experience positive without overwhelming them with ads
Kelly: KEy to monetizing is sponsorship and intelligent integration into programming that doesn’t turn people off. Other fragmentation…
Natali: there’s more space – banners, and commercial between videos. Diggnation advertise everwhere. Other networks have endorsements within the content that can blur the lines between paid advertising and programming that she doesn’t like.
Limor: Next 5 years:
Kelly: People will be watching TV on their computers. Will be itneresting to see ad sales model. More interaction in communities, people putting out own content, having more impact and input as what they want to see as viewers.
Allison: More integrated campaigns that will allow mobile, trad, ditigal, more integrated and cohesive. Watching video on cell as well as online.
Mindy: Agrees with the others, traditional giving up reins to digital. TV may be convergence of all your devices. Curious how UGC will blur lines of professional journalism. Also about blogging. This Old House called readers together to submit stories and photos, and published a magazine – Your Old House – user generated issue.
Natali: The most successful tech will be ones that are transparent. Email and text everywhere – just part of our lives. So, wont’ be distinction between tv on computer, on mobile, in home. Things that we want to happen will be easy and we’ll take it for granted.
Romina: IN future more women CEOs.