Mediaboss Marketing

When youre surfing the web and spot targeted ads based on your prior searches, its a jarring reminder that someone companies, websites and search engines is following your digital footsteps.

They are also following the money. The volume of personal digital data available is transforming everyday commerce, particularly marketing and advertising.

Companies want to engage and interact with you through multiple platforms that can include emails, mobile devices, social media and online video and even use that new data trove to spawn new forms such as junk mail. They want you to linger, get to know your likes and dislikes and offer more targeted promotions.

In fact in four years, advertisers will spend $77 billion on digital interactive marketing as much as they do on TV today, according to research firm Forrester.

With so much money at stake, its no wonder companies are retooling how they use metrics and analytics to achieve business goals. Other industries including financial services and health care are also working to capitalize on the data boom.

In the span of just a couple of years, how we think about customer data has really changed, says Fatemeh Khatibloo, senior analyst at Forrester, who specializes in customer intelligence, privacy and personal data issues.

The fast-changing industry is breeding startups, which are remaking existing models and platforms to lure more and more venture capital.

Naturally, the volume of personal information has privacy activists concerned about opaque companies and governments potentially abusing their power. Just a year ago in Egypt, then-President Hosni Mubarak shut down Internet access before his government began a crackdown on political protesters.

Lest you think the issue is confined to nondemocratic governments run by despots, protests erupted in January over anti-piracy legislation in the U.S. Congress.

Buying, Selling Your Personal Data

Read more:
What You May Not Know About the Boom in Digital User Data

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As our friends at NPR's Two-Way blog mentioned yesterday afternoon, the Weinstein Company has decided to release Bully without a rating following the controversy that flared when the MPAA assigned it an R, rather than a PG-13, based on language. As I've mentioned, giving the film an R rating seems very odd to me, and even more so after seeing the PG-13 The Hunger Games.

A press release outlining the promotional partners for the upcoming release of Battleship (that's the movie, "based on" the game) might seem like a ho-hum thing, but parts of it are actually kind of amusing and perplexing. Sure, you've got your Coke Zero and your Chevron and your Subway. But don't forget your ... Hilton Hotels? Take note, too, that the U.S. Navy and the USO are both on board, so to speak. [Deadline]

In its first week of availability, how many people listened online to the This American Life episode retracting their Mike Daisey Apple episode? Well, a lot. More than any other episode has grabbed in that first week, including the original Daisey episode. [Nieman Journalism Lab]

In a different twist on Mad Men fever, one writer for The Guardian doesn't have any way of seeing the show for quite a while, and doesn't plan to shell out extra money just to get the right service to see it. What to do until then? "I suggest occupying oneself with a new hobby, or more aptly, going on a prolonged bender." [The Guardian]

The host for the next Emmy Awards will be Jimmy Kimmel, and while I have found him not my cup of tea at times, Kimmel's ability to get people to do silly things is right up there with Jimmy Fallon's, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him turn out to be quite a fine host. [HitFix]

At last: Harry Potter e-books are available at the Pottermore web site. That one took a while. [NYT]

Read more:
Morning Shots: Harry Potter Goes Digital, And 'Bully' Goes Without A Rating

By Will Hobson, Times Staff Writer Will HobsonTampa Bay Times In Print: Wednesday, March 28, 2012

LARGO Since Apple debuted the iPad in 2010, the sleek device has revolutionized and dominated the tablet computer market. Apple has sold more than 55 million. The company may soon get seven more customers: Largo's city commissioners.

The iPads will replace laptops as the devices commissioners use to check email and review city documents from home. The city staff is still working out the kinks of determining Largo's application needs, but information technology director Harold Schomaker thinks he'll be ordering several (depending on how many of the seven commissioners request one) in the next few weeks.

And although some residents may criticize commissioners for spending city money on iPads while trying to cut the budget, Schomaker counters that the iPads will actually save Largo tax dollars.

Commissioners now use Dell laptops, which cost between $1,200 and $1,400, Schomaker says, and are out of warranty and in need of replacing. With Apple's recent release of the latest model, older iPads are on sale for as little as $399.

"Why buy a big old laptop you have to lug around when you can get something smaller and cheaper that has the same functionality?" said Schomaker, who has been using an iPad 2 at work for the past two months to test different types of applications commissioners will need.

One of the applications Schomaker is testing, iAnnotate, may have won over Commissioner Harriet Crozier, who has declined to take a city laptop. The iAnnotate app allows users to jot notes onto electronic documents they can save for future reference.

Crozier is Largo's representative on a number of local boards, like the Metropolitan Planning Organization, and often finds herself juggling several bulky agenda packets, each with a different set of notes. With an iPad, she could save the agendas and her notes, all in one place.

"I think it's really going to help me, and it's a great price," said Crozier, who objected a few years ago when she says former City Manager Steve Stanton bought laptops for the commissioners without asking first. Crozier didn't like the idea of reading agenda documents off the screen of a laptop, but she's sold on the sleeker iPads.

So is Mayor Pat Gerard, who has left her city laptop at City Hall for the last year. She doesn't like lugging the laptop around, but Gerard thinks she'll get more use out of the iPad, which is less than 10 inches in height and weighs less than 2 pounds.

Read the original:
Largo commissioners' digital efforts going smaller with iPads

A screen grab from the Nelson Mandela Digital Archive, which went live Tuesday. (Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory / March 27, 2012)

March 27, 2012, 5:30 p.m.

For a look at the future of digital museums, check out the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory's new digital archive composed of thousands of scanned documents from the African leader's life.

With the help of a $1.25 million grant from Google, the center digitized thousands of documents and images that illustrate the life and times of South Africa's first black president. But instead of scanning them and dumping them online for scholars to peruse, the center, with Google's support, created a virtual museum experience -- highlighting certain pieces from the archives, putting them in the context of Mandela's life and then enabling a visitor to the site to go deeper if they'd like.

The exhibit is organized by different phases of Mandela's life, such as "Early Life," "Prison Years," "Presidential Years" and "Retirement." As you move through the different sections, you'll find the earliest known photograph of Mandela, scans of the desk calendars where he scribbled notes during his 27 years in prison, and handwritten notes he sent his daughters -- including one written shortly after the arrest of their mother.

Although Google provided money and technical support for the project through the Google Cultural Insitute, Verne Harris, head of memory programming at the Centre of Memory, made it clear that the center is still firmly in control of presentation choices and the material used.

"The Centre of Memory owns the content and individual contributors remain the owners of their copyright," he said in a statement. "Google does not own the material. The project is about public access and the preservation of heritage."

The statement also made it clear that the center is responsible for what information is put on the website, and how.

ALSO:

Harry Potter e-books go on sale at Pottermore

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Nelson Mandela's life in a digital museum, courtesy of Google

OAKLAND, CA--(Marketwire -03/27/12)- More than 50 winners of the 2011 Digital/Social Awards for Excellence in Online Communications were summarized today in the Bulldog Digital Social Awards Hall of Fame magazine.

Winners were chosen exclusively by working journalists from hundreds of entries representing the very best strategic and tactical prowess that PR/corporate communications has to offer. Campaigns were judged by a team of working journalists, who assessed them on the basis of their ability to achieve extraordinary visibility and influence opinion, as well as on their creativity, command of media and technology, and tenacity.

This year's Grand Prize Best Use of Digital/Social for a Digital/Social Communications Campaign of the Year was awarded to Denison University, which also won Gold Digital/Social awards for Best Online Newsroom of the Year, Best Use of Digital/Social for Higher Education and a Silver award for Best Microsite or Specialized Website.

Bulldog Reporter publishes the Daily 'Dog online trade journal, the PR/communication industry's largest circulation publication, and is the industry's premier provider of professional development events and materials.

Here is a complete list of the 2011 Bulldog Digital/Social PR Awards Winners:

Best Use of Digital/Social for a Digital/Social Communications Campaign of the YearGrand Prize Awarded to Denison University For TheDEN

Best Use of Digital/Social in an Arts/Culture/Entertainment Campaign GoldAwarded to Activate Sports & Entertainment and New Jersey Devils for 'Mission Control'

SilverAwarded to Euro RSCG Worldwide PR For KmartGamer

BronzeAwarded to Rogers & Cowan For Avon Voices

Best Use of Digital in a B2B Technology Campaign GoldAwarded to LEWIS PR For Digital Drives Thought Leadership

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The Hall of Fame Online Magazine Showcasing the Winners of the 2011 Bulldog Digital/Social Awards for Excellence in ...