I didn’t realize it until I saw the music CD at Starbucks while I was having my Saturday morning coffee. “Love”, the Cirque du Soleil/Beatles collaborative production soundtrack (now showing at The Mirage in Las Vegas) was starring me in the face. 
But what really hit me, was how it came to be my had-to-have CD. For you see, I had just heard a sample of the soundtrack on the msn.com website just the day before. This re-mix CD had been out since last summer, but I wasn’t ready to buy until my Starbucks moment. The interactivity of “New media” captured my attention. The store environment got the sale.
Just last week in the Wall St. Journal, there was at least one article in each daily issue talking about the importance, effectiveness and evolution of “New Media” vs. “Old Media”. Ad agencies, marketing companies and savvy brand mangers are now realizing that traditional “old media” (newspaper, TV, magazine and radio) have lost its voice and has become “advertising noise” to most of today’s consumers. A New Media strategy is what’s working. New Media centers on interactive communications technologies such as web, mobile, TIVO, viral email, computer games and the convergence of web and TV. The key to all of this is the fact that it is all interactive where Old Media is not.
Think about it. Most people under 35 use New Media more than Old Media to get their information. With the growth rate of these technologies, In the next 5 years this will almost assuredly effect all people under age 40. This age group will be buying most of the jewelry in this country. And 50 somethings (ugh) like me will be getting most of our news and information that way too. And we’ve got most of the disposable money. Jewelry and watch brands need to embrace the web and develop dynamic email opportunities to bring the consumer to a web presentation that woos them and introduces them to the essecene of their brand. How effective is that Town and Country magazine ad? Can you track it? You can if you have a New Media strategy to leverage it. Look, I’m not saying to get rid of newspaper, magazine, TV and radio, but we keep hearing from jewelers how their advertising in these channels are becoming less and less effective. With the interactivity of New Media, its easy to see why.
If you don’t develop and implement a strong New Media strategy soon, your brand may just reach either deaf ears or the wrong customer. You’re seeing it affect the marketing of other luxury goods categories already. Cars, fashion, handbags, entertainment, travel and many more competitors for the luxury consumer are already getting involved. And they would be more than happy to see dollars go away from jewelry and watches to their categories.
In the next few months, this blog will explore some emerging New Media strategies for our industry and discuss ideas for new ones. Please feel free to let me know what you’d like to see discussed?
By the way, at Starbucks, the sign for my new CD read “A great Valentine’s day gift”. Our industry may currently have the corner on gifts of love, but even the Beatles and coffee houses are horning in on our party.
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