Live events are a “huge” part of “content that you can experience," according to Larry Weber, author of Marketing to the Social Web and a new book, Stick & Stones. Real-time, experiential and rich media, he says, are parts of a new “World 2.0” spawned by today’s communications technology. Weber, chairman of W2 Group, spoke last week at a regional American Business Media Seminar, in Boston.

The platypus, that peculiar duck billed, beaver-tailed, egg-laying, venomous, aquatic mammal from “Down Under”, is Weber’s metaphor for an integrated marketing paradigm which unites disparate search, branding, analytics, PR, performance marketing, social media and mobile communications as a single animal. In Weber’s taxonomy, traditional advertising isn’t in the mix.

“Traditional advertising is dying,” Weber asserts. He predicts that by 2015, there will be no newspapers or nightly news (media gurus can't be shy). The new role of advertising, according to Weber, is to “...get you to a digital or physical event…The content comes first, then the transaction.”

“It’s all about customer connections thru content,” said Weber, in an email exchange. Micro-segmented (deep topic) physical events supported and continued thru digital are going to be increasingly important.”

Evidence from publishers supported Weber’s thesis about events. John Craven, Founder/President of BevNet.com which garners significant revenue from events, said “People still want to meet.” Brian Randall, VP eMedia at Diversified Business Communications (describing a case we hope to detail in the future), credited a social media effort for 26% of paid registration at a recent trade event. Social media is getting “butts in seats.” said RD Whitney, the CEO of Tarsus Online Media.

However, the platypus has other lessons for content providers and marketers. The platypus is, after all, not an evolutionary all-star but a primitive oddity that survived in continental isolation. You may not need online social media any more than you  need a platypus bill for a mouth. A consumer show executive we checked with told us that, in contrast to what the B2B companies at the ABM meeting, “Social media is only a tiny part of what we do.” The shape of your business depends on who you serve and who you compete against.

One thing you can count on is that there will always be a place for face-to-face. And whether you are in World 1.0, World 2.0, or somewhere beyond, you have creative opportunities to combine events with online and other media to meet your goals. Even if we are hit with the political-economic equivalent of an asteroid, the weightings of the media mix - the size and characteristics of the media “species” that can survive, prosper and sustain themselves over time -  are as varied and wonderful as the creatures of the earth.

That’s why we love this business!

Labels: events and new media, experiential media, Larry Weber, marketing to the social web, micro-segmentation, real-time marketing, rich media