Gigantic™

Friday. Love.

Happy Friday! Here are links to a few things that made us smile this week:

• Amanda Palmer makes $19K on Twitter in 10 hours.
  
• Amazingly cool uniforms at Ace Hotel in NYC.
  
• Rocking new Sephora store in Times Square.

Digital Spirits

Distilled spirits brands are pushing deeper into the digital realm with Absolut's new iPhone app and Southern Comfort's move to put 100% of their budget into digital. 

"It's also cheaper. Ms. DerOhannessian said savings from the switch to a 100% digital media buy will allow the brand to bolster its presence in bars and at retail, as well as through events. It will also give it a significant footprint online, where a $10 million budget stretches very far."

More than a trend, we expect digital to be the future of distilled spirits marketing—combined with highly-conceptualized on-premise experiences.

The "M" word.

There, we said it: mobile. (Bet you thought we were going to say monetize.) Well we’re saying that too. There has been a lot talk this year about monetizing content on the Internet. At the Ad 2.0 Conference, we were there when Barry Diller said:

“I absolutely believe the Internet is passing from its free days into a paid system. Inevitably, I promise you, it will be paid,” Diller said in a keynote discussion opening up the Advertising 2.0 conference held at his company’s futuristic glass building alongside the Hudson River in Manhattan. “Not every single thing, but anything of value.”

While a model for effectively monetizing content on the Internet remains elusive, there is a technological space where fees are already firmly in place: mobile. According to a recent business week article:

“Consumers are increasingly using their cell phones for financial transactions, and users are expected to spend $1.6 billion via mobile commerce this year, according to a new report from ABI Research.”

Most media industry players see this as a problem inherent to the evolution of modern media. But we have to ask as brands become media, how will these issues impact them? And an obvious consideration, is your brand prepared with a mobile media strategy?