Marketers are Becoming Media Companies

In "Every Company is a Media Company" author Tom Foremski accurately points out "When every company is a media company this changes more than just a company's PR/communications department -- it changes nearly every aspect of an organization." He adds, "'Every company is a media company' is the most important business transformation of our times because every company is affected. It is also a massive business opportunity for so many businesses."

In this week'sJack Myers Media Business Report delivered yesterday to subscribers, I shared proprietary economic insights on companies ranging from Wal-Mart and Whole Foods to Johnson & Johnson and P&G that are investing significant organizational and financial resources in building media properties. These media assets are not intended only to deliver marketing value, but to generate enhanced economic value and enhance the companies' shareholder value. While websites, mobile applications and social media are the visible tip of the iceberg for many companies' investments in media ownership, they are also developing place-based digital media and expanding their event and experiential marketing commitments, which will represent nearly $18 billion of marketers' expenditures this year.

Event and experiential marketing has traditionally been approached as a series of one-off consumer outreach initiatives by marketers. Now they are being reconsidered as renewable and sustainable media properties that can often be partially or completely self-funding.

As mobile scanning capabilities in the U.S. become as developed as they are already in several Asian and European countries, both retailers and brand marketers will invest in building direct marketing, couponing and promotional apps that are designed to drive traffic and generate real-time response. These apps will increasingly put marketers directly into the media business as they seek to generate ancillary revenues from endemic and non-endemic partners.

With consumers living in a mash up of apps, blogs, RSS feeds, links, text messages, tweets, self-generated content, social networks and location-based promotion, strong media brands will extend off the screen and page into merchandise and consumer services, while strong product and service brands will morph into media properties. Progressive media companies and marketers will become indistinguishable and undifferentiated.

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