Podshow's CEO talks about the "big shift" toward consumer-generated content, and how advertising should adapt to be part of the evolution of media.

User-generated content and social networks are the modern media phrases du jour. As an executive with business line and brand responsibility, why should you care? Is this a fad? What is really happening here? Well, let me make a few predictions:

1. We are in the midst of a Big Shift: within five years, over 50 percent of the media consumed will be created by other consumers
2. This entire movement will not be driven by technology, but rather by consumer demand
3. The nature of the content that people will consume will change dramatically
4. Advertising and marketing as we know it will have to change dramatically as well in order to succeed in this new media world

In 2005, I described the impact of user-generated media on the nature of content as "The MashUp Effect" and warned of its powerful impact on advertising. With the advent of pervasive broadband and inexpensive tools, users are now making their own content from bits and bytes scattered across the net. Much of this content originally came from traditional media channels, and the media has done everything that they can to limit that access and control that flow. Well, the audience has turned elsewhere, and are discovering that they can make equally appealing entertainment by mixing their own content with others'. 

Today, audiences are deserting traditional media channels for the new media frontier. They are not doing it for the technology, which is barely functional at best. They are doing it for the fresh appeal of this new form of content, the new arena of entertainment and a new community of relationships. The real question you may want to ask is, what should brands do to succeed in a world where they can not control their image or their voice?

As user-generated media networks continue to grow, we are seeing the emergence of a "Mash-up Economy," where creation and consumption of content is a part of a new language of the commerce that is already evident in every element of our social and media landscape. Make no mistake about it, the impact of the Big Shift is already proving to be far greater socially and economically than the introduction of the web, and potentially even more fundamental than the impact of Gutenberg's press. Are you ready for the change?

Are you prepared for a wave of user-generated media that mashes up your brands' messages into any and all variations of the theme? Are you ready for rebuttals to your brand message that are produced as eloquently as anything you can produce? Are you prepared to go further, to dig deeper to build meaningful relationships with your audience? Are you prepared to transform your company or brand into a media enterprise?

The ability to tightly control brand or message was possible because the channels through which a brand could communicate were limited and controlled. This is no longer the case. Frequency is unlimited, formats are limitless, time slots are irrelevant, audiences are self segmenting and powerful content can come from anywhere. In this new media economy, if you try to speak with only one voice, there is a good chance you will not be heard. Now is the time to prepare for the Big Shift in media creation and consumption by beginning to rethink your brand and market strategy. As a company or brand, you must learn to think and communicate like a new media enterprise… to go to market with a broad strategy for communicating your message across an almost unlimited number of channels in a virtually limitless number of voices. You must come to understand the challenges and opportunities that you will face in a world where content can not be organized by time, frequency, channel or point of reference. 

If you are a brand manager, you may find yourself having to lead the charge within your organization. It may be you out on the front line, convincing your company to become a media enterprise. If you are facing this challenge, you may want to introduce the executives in your company to what I call "Fart's Law." With the pace of technology and social evolution increasing so dramatically, we are at a point where the technology innovation described in Moore's Law will be consumed by a series of fundamental changes in our media ecosystem, leaving slow adopters in the dust. Fart's Law states simply: The possibility that any new innovation will succeed increases exponentially over the number of old farts who refuse to endorse it. 

Over the past 10 years, audiences have been steadfastly and dramatically deserting traditional media channels, not because of the availability of new media, but rather because of the simple lack of quality and social value to be found over conventional media channels. There are virtually no traditional media channels that can report parallels of the unprecedented growth of new media over the last 10 years. They are simply churning customers from an ever-diluting pot, in the process of eliminating whatever brand goodwill they had created. Broadcast is the buggy whip of media, and narrowcast is a marketing term for desperately releasing content in hopes of aggregating a depleting audience that is already looking elsewhere for its media fix. What does this mean for the future, and what will happen to the "old fart companies? 

While Hollywood and the record industry are struggling to build taller walls around their content, audiences are sending the message that they simply do not require their participation. While brands are struggling to make their voices heard within the boundaries of traditional advertising, audiences are tuning out and are becoming their own producers. Social networks, podcasting and other forms of user generated content are the tip of a spear that is smart-targeted right at the heart of media as we know it. 

We are moving from broadcast media networks to social media networks, and that shift is occurring on top of a cobbled-together network of internet, cell phones, MP3 players and other devices that can create output or receive input. Stand back, because the network is becoming increasingly more reliable and elastic. It is a network of thoughts and ideas; of connections and diversions. Its audience is both nomadic and highly loyal.

So how are brands to succeed in this landscape? We have set in motion a series of events that have resulted in the opportunity for content to become creative again, and guess what… advertising is content!  Consider this:

• The technology for creating world class content is now virtually free
• The technology for distributing content to any device is readily available
• In general, today's channel driven content structure is being rendered obsolete
• Audiences are looking elsewhere for their entertainment

The typical Old Fart response is "won't people complain when we put advertising in this new content?" Here is my message to advertisers and marketers: let's make advertising content again. Advertisers have access to the same tools. Let's break the rules that we built to wall ourselves into a world of spots and links. Let's take advantage of the new wave of content and creativity that is changing the face and voice of media. We are seeing it in podcasting as global brands are now working with us to enable podcasters to create the type of advertising that they believe will connect with their respective audiences. We are coordinating campaigns where a single brand is being represented by a hundred different voices. And, it is working. For the record, audiences are absolutely willing to except and endorse advertising. How do we know? We ask them! Think of the power of being able to be creative without permission; of having a direct connection with your audience that can be nurtured and grown. Work with us, and let's make waves.