Connie you are correct about understanding the industry and more importantly, where your place in it truly is.
For instance, I have a rich gravelly voice but, doubt I will ever become the next Don LaFontaine (RIP)
Remembering where my forte and my place are, I am able focus on the attainable and continue to succeed
At the same time learning and adding to your abilities is essential for keeping up with ever changing dynamics.

Thanks for reiterating this.

Believe me, I know that finding the right trees is my best course of action.

I love your posts, which always tend to get me to thinking.

Video and commercials also being something that I do, I have been spending quite a bit of time dealing with lots of questions surrounding reach and penetration of viewership, internet vs. broadcast and so forth. I’ve also wondered about social media and SEO and other aspects of emerging media as it relates to me personally.

I think the differential these days is that in all but a few rare cases, we’re not looking to reach everyone. Demographic, xenographic and psychographic breakdowns, along with all forms of increased data collection means that we’re looking less and less to cast a wide net. Given the ability one has to very easily change content, we’re even seeing large corporations taking advantage of things like ComCast Spotlite, which allows the client to pinpoint households in very distinct market segmentations. The same video may appear in the San Francisco market with the Goden Gate Bridge in the Background and in St. Louis with the Arch, and so forth.

If we are talking about a national run on any of the networks, one can often pinpoint audiences even within specific genres, such a being able to distinguish among viewers of CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, to determine which program might be best, or if 2 or all the three are the shot.

We’re also seeing campaigns that extend from advertising on televsion to direfct the viewer to a web site to recive some sort of “value addded service”.

We’re not too far away, in the estimations of many from having an almost full convergence of televison and internet (computer), which will create interesting scenarios that might include having instant coupons; you’re watching a program and see someone in the program engaging with a product, you then can stop the program to find out more information on the product, which might include receving a coupon and then being able to order the item directly or place it on some form of e-shopping list.

This new world will be about the consumer granting more permissions for the advertiser to come into the consumer’s hime. It will be about using viewing habits, online habits and other forms of data collection to have consumers pull the advertising into their worlds as opposed to having advertisers pushing their advertising on the person.

It will extend into virtual worlds and social media communities and much of it will be hard wired into the experience, providing a somewhat seamless advertising experience. Imagine being able to see some pop singer on screen and in a few mouse clicks , learn about the jeans she is wearing and then order them.

This and quite a bit more is just around the corner. We already see the predictive and heuristic experience that one can have with Amazon.com In my personal case, their recommendations for me tend to be better choices than the items my close friends and family often think I will be interested in.

The old way was about shouting to the forest, while now it seems more about getting to know an individual tree.