Don't get distracted from the coming opportunity!

My wife and I recently drove to Hilton Head, SC for a long week of beach, sun, food and more. Great time, but you notice lots of scary things when you're driving in the car for a long period of time. One thing I noticed on this trip, as well as a recent long weekend to Maine, is that motorcycle helmet laws vary from state to state. Being from Upstate New York (helmets mandatory) it is odd to see a Harley pass you with a rider's hair flowing in the wind, only RayBans separating their noggin from the elements, but we saw quite a few on these trips along the East Coast. Equally scary to other road-residents: a lot of drivers are still talking without a hands-free device. Also, you see a fair number of people who appear to be doing something in their laps while driving...texting I assume? I almost hope that's what they're up to. Personally, I believe hands-free cell communication takes your concentration off the driving just as much as hands-on...and probably as much as driving with a burger in one hand and coffee in the other (we saw that, too!).

In the case for helmets, new high tech ones can have music piped in and a GPS driving-direction map for the face shield is one the way soon.

As I often ask, what does this have to do with advertising? Distraction.

New media, digital/mobile/call-it-what-you-want is distraction based. In the good old days, readers embraced print media and many perused newspapers and shopper publications for the ads. I never knew anyone who watched TV or listened to the radio to see/hear what ads were on. But print ads were welcomed on the whole. Now, ads in general have become an unwelcome distraction. Check out this headline from digitaltrends.com: "Banner ads suck, say guys who invented banner ads." As online and mobile ads become the rule it's the pop-ups, re-directs, e-mail blasts, ad text messages and more that have turned advertising into something invasive. Next scary trend: distraction may be okay with up and coming users.

For example, how many people see and react to mobile ads? According to consumer research by The MMA and Lightspeed Research (October 2010), in UK, France and Germany, 45 percent of consumers (especially younger people) noticed mobile advertising and 29 percent of these responded to it (source: mobithinking.com). Moreover, mobile local ad revenue in the U.S. will grow by 54 percent by 2016, according to a new study by local media advisor company BIA/Kelsey. They say that mobile local ad spending will outpace mobile national ad spending by 2016. BIA/Kelsey projects that local mobile ad spending will account for 58 percent of total ad spending in just four years. The company expects mobile ad spending to reach $9.92 billion by 2016. (source: clickz.com). That's a big pie that is up for local grabs.

As local print publishers we have to be the ones to make this work for users and advertisers:

1. It's a growing revenue stream; we can't let it slip by.

2. We already have local customers and content.

3. We have history on how to get the message across without becoming a distraction or invasion.

At FCPNY we launched OhSoLocal, our local mobile app last year. It hasn't caught on yet; I think we were too early with it. If you want to learn more on how it might work for you or if you need help with any other free paper topic give us a shout at 315-472-6007 or email me at tcuskey@fcpny.com.

Thanks for your time.