Vicarious Rocky

Are they high?

All of Jeff Hayzlett’s comments about digital marketing were used only in relation to how they integrate with the ever dominant, not-to-change-soon world of B2B print. In the same breath, he speaks of the dying broadcast industry with no sense of irony.

The examples he gave of print’s ongoing evolution were laughable. He spoke of the exciting upcoming opportunity to put personally targeted advertising directly on my billing statements. Like a dreamy paper version of Amazon, I will be wowed when my car payment invoice comes to me with a picture of my exact car on it. But will that impress me more than when Papa John’s sends me a postcard coupon with a picture of my favorite pizza on the front of it? He goes on to tell me that the excitement of going to the mailbox will never die. The key is to get the messaging personalized and in front of me on the mail I value.

Problem is, he seems to lack any insight about my generation’s opinion of mail. You see, I don’t get paper statements in the mail. I pay my bills online. And Papa John’s already sends me an email every two weeks of their latest coupon, and when I click through my email, it takes me to my personal page that auto-fills my pizza ingredients, and then I complete my order online. See how that doesn’t involve ink?!?

Most telling was the PPT slide with a timeline, which ended at the digital age and showed the timeline bar above it like ¼ filled in, implying we have many years to come here in the glorious digital age. Lack of vision killed this company and that slide seriously lacks vision. How long does this guy think the digital age will last as he knows it; as this little monkey sidekick to print?

But hey, you speed into the 21^st century however you see fit. Oh, and good luck with that semantic image matching technology you have patented. What database of pictures will you be leveraging this on exactly? There’s my super profitable “My Pictures” folder. Don’t forget my Kodak “Easy” (if you know my password) Share. Or will you just be selling that patent to Google?