Drop In, Turn On, Tune Out

There’s more to the story of this week’s $2.2 billion purchase of technology start up You Tube by Internet behemoth Google than meets the eye.

It is actually recognition of the dramatic shift in consumer viewing habits and that will have a tremendous impact on how businesses spend their advertising dollar.

For those not up to date with the latest, You Tube is a web site where anyone can upload video for the public to view.

It not only caters for special interest groups like political pundits, sports enthusiasts and ‘funniest home video’ type moments but also allows people to upload ‘captured’ video clips from television – like Australian Idol, for example.

So what’s the fascination with watching people’s home movies and the like that had major media players like News Corporation (publisher of AustralianIT), owner of MySpace.com, and MTV owner Viacom lining up rival bids?

It’s the beginning of a new trend away from pre-programmed mass entertainment.

Just as half a century ago, TV allowed the individual a choice of programming as opposed to watching the news and entertainment program set by the cinema operators, the Internet now offer a multiplicity of choice of both professionally made and amateur content.

And since the majority of home personal computers come bundled with movie making software, the costs of producing and uploading a mini-movies or video diaries, known as V-logs, are negligible.

What it means for marketers is traditional means of getting a message out to a mass audience is no longer working and the major TV networks know they are in for a tough time in capturing an audience which has so much choice on how it spends its leisure time.

The only sure way of ensuring your message hits the mark is to know your audience. Identifying and understanding your target market has never been more important in making a decision on how you spend your marketing budget.