No, that was not my goal at all.

If anything, I was there to get people not to use Augmented Reality.   Superfluous use of technology tends to minimize the impact of use cases that actually make sense. My fear is that the marketing community will adopt this technology, exploit it and then spit it out like so many technologies before it (Second Life, anyone).

My hope is that we have matured as an industry and that we are able to do our due diligence before leveraging the technological flavor of the month (not that Augmented Reality is new–it has been around for quite some time. It is, however, new to the marketing community).

With that said, I think the class went great! Representatives from Traction, OMD, Kraft, The Integer Group, 20th Century Fox among others were all present. It seemed that I got people thinking strategically and that was my goal. As always thanks to Brad Berens, Daisey Whitney, Katharine Panessidi and the entire iMedia family for the opportunity to share some of my passion with the marketing community.

Now, as promised, here are my slides (there are only a few…give me a call if you want me to talk you through them )

Augmenting iMediaView more presentations from Adam Broitman.

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At around noon today I received one of Mediapost’s “Breaking News” newsletters, the title of which made me cringe and let out a little yelp of pain/nausea that resounded softly throughout my office. The title of this newsletter is, “Interpublic: Social Is Fastest Growing Emerging Medium; Search Is Slowing”.

Did my day really have to be interrupted by this nonsense?

Of course I felt compelled to comment on this after seeing it, as this is the type of headline that makes phones ring over here in agency land, and the questions are often as ridiculous as this headline.

It is not just the headline I take issue with, it is the content and projections as. Here is what I mean:

Statement

While growing of a much smaller base, Magna’s Wieser said emerging media nonetheless appear to be slowing down, especially online search, which he projects will grow only 24.0% next year. While still healthy by traditional media ad growth standards, Wieser said it represents a slowdown from 26.5% growth in 2007 and 29.5% in 2006.

Reaction

How tragic, only 24% growth in search! I know the analyst is only doing his job but anyone who takes 24% growth as alarming (especially in the search space) as something negative probably needs to take a Quaalude!

…and another thing, if emerging platforms are seeing growth, when do they cease to be emerging? Where is the cut off line here?

Statement

The fastest growing of the emerging media platforms tracked by Magna, he said, is social media, which includes both social networks and applications like ad-supported widgets

Reaction

Does this mean that we can expect an onslaught of new, “me too” applications and widgets or does this mean that we will actually start seeing some integrated social strategies that involve true conversation and collaboration? Of course the answer is most likely the former, but are social networks, applications and widgets the beginning and end of social media?

Of course not!

…and one more thing, since when is being social an emergent behavior. I know I am being overly pedantic, but I just hate these stats

In the end, this type of thing should really not get me all riled up. After all, I still have my health!