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Introduction
Well. Here we are.
The end of advertising.
At least, the end of this week’s advertising focus.
However, I do want to leave us B2B operators with a hint of sunshine coming from all places, Meta:
Services like Facebook benefit from relative ease of use, and a data collection model that enables lucrative advertising services.
…
Building a decentralized social network could let Meta experiment with an app that pushes back on standard criticisms of Facebook and Instagram.
There are a lot of smart people working at Meta/Facebook/Instagram.
If they are shifting away from an advertising-first model, there needs to be some optimism of what comes next.
Advertising, in the non-scale era
We lost another outlet this week in Recode:
Recode raised $10 million in venture funding only to sell to Vox Media after just 18 months, saying it could not compete in a scale era. That was only partially true, since Recode had the makings of a successful boutique business media brand, only the tenor of the times was all about scaling.
Ultimately, it’s too bad they had to raise funding.
Can you imagine a Swisher/Mossberg combo in the era of communicating directly with your audience?
While the pandemic would have likely put a crimp in their conference business, can you imagine how lucrative that business would be today?
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To Brian’s overall point in The Rebooting article, Recode had the model down.
They were just too early.
And, timing can be everything.
Still. Is there a niche media business model that mimics what Recode was doing–bringing influential folks together–for the B2B crowd?
I always thought the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho was a good model to go after.
No scale needed.
Very influential folks getting together for a few days to talk about the challenges and successes of their businesses and industries.
Would I pay for (corporate/brand) advertising there?
You betcha.
What’s next
Are Amazon Ads advertising, marketing, slotting fees, trade dollars, discounts or price discrimination?
When Amazon is considered both the world’s largest advertiser while still trying to understand what advertising actually is, there’s some room for growth and confusion.
While we didn’t touch on third-/first-party data, it’s clear those B2B organizations who leverage their network through a relationship-first approach will win in the long-term.
Closing
Do ads work for your B2B organization?
I’d enjoy hearing your feedback.
Feel free to email me or use the comments below.
Thank you
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