Cable companies cut ads because of Netflix - another nail for broadcast media?

According to Business Insider, major TV networks are so scared of Netflix they've actually started showing fewer ads, often up to 50% ad-reductions during reality shows, in a bid to lure back younger viewers.

Add to this the increasing use of streaming services and ad-blockers to anticipate a future where brand owners will switch to Seth Godin's permission-marketing - the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them - to appreciate that it is time for a fundamental rethink in how we communicate  brand benefits.

Those who recognise the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing, and realise that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention will re-allocate funds to social media with messages that respond to real consumer need..., while the rest stick with their increasingly old fashioned knitting... 

Love for sale? - Paying for social popularity...

Need to boost pageviews? Mat Honan on Wired describes the low-cost ways in which you can increase your social media impact.

You could rent a botnet for $2 an hour and point many thousands of visitors to your story. But counting pageviews is old-school—”engagement” is where it’s at today. So try Fiverr, a service that lets you pay people $5 for all sorts of tasks. For instance pay someone to get 6,000 people to spend at least 30 seconds viewing your story. To juice social media pay  $5 for 2,000 shares on Facebook. Finally, pay $5 for 500 people to tweet your story and another $5 for 500 retweets of your tweet

Morality apart, the relative ease with which traffic can be manipulated means that advertisers may be forced back to more effective measures of social media impact, like product sales, conversion-rate, average transaction value, and ROI…

Despite the constant turmoil in unprecedented times, nothing really changes, we are all simply buying and selling, seeking an adequate reward for risk.

The rest is detail…

Social Media explained via the Tesco NAM role

Twitter:        I am totally responsible for anything that goes wrong at Tesco…

Facebook:    ...but I still ‘like’ Tesco…

Foursquare:  This is where I bend over backwards for Tesco…

Instagram:     Here is a vintage pic of my last remaining shirt…

YouTube:      Here is me rehearsing saying ‘No’…(see Wikileaks and Foursquare for what actually happened…)

LinkedIn:      These are all the people I think I met in Tesco’s waiting room…

Pinterest:      Here is an untried list of the swansong concessions I intend to demand from Tesco….

Last FM:       Here is a list of the Buyer’s (…and now my) favourite tunes….

G+:              A quick way of going around in circles with Tesco…

However, joking apart, Big T remains the best gig in town!