That chorus of “I Told You So” heard around the world on Monday came from media watchers and marketers who have been patiently waiting for this day to happen.

A study released this week by OutSell notes that spending on digital advertising will be up 10% this year and will, for the first time ever, surpass, money spent on print advertising. Of the $368 billion to be spent by marketers this more…

The Patient: Merriam–Webster, America’s go-to guy for dictionaries and thesauruses since 1828.

The Ailment: Merriam Webster suffers from a jumbled online presence and a scattered social media strategy that undercuts their fantastic line of products.

Prognosis: Hopeful. With a strict streamlining of the website, an aggressive public relations plan, and clear vision for social media, Merriam-Webster should remain the country’s premiere reference guru for another century or two.

Recommended Treatment: The worn out red Webster’s dictionary has long lived on the shelves of students. Everybody knows the brand and it’s omnipresence is so ingrained that it would be safe to assume that the brand is fine and not going anywhere anytime soon, right? Wrong. If the recent  shake ups at long standing publishers like  Rand McNally has taught more…

It’s been another exciting week in the world of all things Google. The little search engine with the unassuming primary colored logo has generated more headlines recently than American Idol and Obama combined. Let’s take a look at what the world’s most popular website has been up to.

Just yesterday, Google threw their hat back into the social media arena with the launch of Buzz. Google promises that Buzz will be the faster and easier way to share pictures and videos with friends and family who already belong to Gmail. Naturally Buzz is instantly compatible with smart phones and employs the latest in GPS location to gather information from neighboring businesses and hot spots. Its a gutsy move considering that Google has failed to nab the social marketing scene like Facebook has. From a marketing standpoint, Buzz could provide some much needed oomph to the social media marketing game. Buzz’s new features and Google-like accessability are appealing and send the mind reeling into more…

A recent article in the New York Times noted that Americans spent 14.7 billion dollars on Valentine’s Day purchases, down from the 17 billion spent in 2008. Retailers expect this year’s sales to dip even lower. The solution? Create affordable Valentine’s Day options for every budget and use social media marketing to get in on the act.

Below are three companies that are showing their customers love by using social media marketing.

New England Confectionery Company, creator of those chalky yet oddly tasty conversational Sweetheart candies has a special Twitter and iPhone app that allows candy lovers to create virtual candies with custom messages that they can share with the rest of the Twitterverse or keep private. The free app gives Sweethearts a modern makeover while allowing the brand to remain a holiday classic.

Hoping to speak to the bitter single girl crowd; LAB records has launched a Facebook group entitled, Say No To Valentines 2010: Help Portia Conn Hit Top Ten! The concept is simple: take one edgy girl with guitar, add jaded rocky lyrics, and serve to angst ridden teens everywhere. LAB invites Valentines loathers and Portia fans alike to join the group and stream her new single on their Facebook pages.  The small label is wisely utilizing social media and holiday promotion to speak to their core audience.

Department store giant Macy*s is also hopping on the Twitter wagon with their “sweetest tweets” campaign. The retailer is in search of  gushy tweeted love notes posted on Twitter from Feb. 1 through Feb. 13 to be entered in a promotional contest that features diamond  jewelry giveaways. Valentine’s themed tweets are Macy’s modern replacement for traditional fill-out and win postcards and something anyone can do while pretending to work.

Pepsi is not only abandoning traditional marketing, it is abandoning a 23 year old tradition of Super Bowl advertising and replacing it with social media marketing. The tens of millions of dollars spent on Super Bowl advertising will certainly buy a lot of social media marketing - the question is, will it be a smart move? I think it will and here’s why.

The Super Bowl is a one dimensional market when it comes to geographic location and that dimension is the US market. Pepsi has a strong presence in the US, so the time is probably right to look at other markets where their presence is not so strong. It is also worth pointing out that they will get plenty of mileage in the US by simply making this announcement.

Geographical regions such as Europe and Asia (particularly China) are huge and Pepsi doesn’t have a large following in these regions. China, in particular, is interesting given the huge penetration made by Coke; this may provide a clue to Pepsi’s thinking. China is also one of the largest users of social media. So if asked how Pepsi could make an impact in China - the answer may be through social media marketing.

There are many other advantages, of course. Television advertising is very much a one shot wonder - even the Super Bowl. It needs to be followed up with newspaper, billboard and in-store marketing. Social media marketing is a long term strategy that will continue to produce results down the road. They will still need the follow-up marketing, however the total cost will be far lower. This means they can repeat the exercise across several geographical regions and still spend less than their current Super Bowl outlay.

Pepsi is not the first to realize the power of social media marketing. Pepsi is probably one of the biggest in terms of dollars spent on TV advertising. What will be interesting to follow is whether or not Coke will respond in a similar way and what sort of influence this will have on other businesses that have been considering social media marketing. When the big boys decide to change the rules of the game, you know it’s time to take notice.

When I was a wee bit younger, the only way to get show times for a movie was to pick up the yellow pages, thumb through listings of local theaters, rotary dial the numbers one at a time and ask each human being on the other end what time Star Wars was showing. By the time I was done, Luke was finding out that Darth was really his father. Fast forward to today and you won’t see me touching a yellow pages book except when used as a booster seat. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t use digital technology to find movies, read reviews, watch trailers or get peer feedback on the hottest summer films. According to a recent entertainment article in the Chicago Tribune, the box office success of Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” may have been due to the help of social media sites like Twitter. Let’s face facts; digital technology facilitates finding information on movies. Yet, you still see movie chains taking out ads in newspapers when everyone knows that you go to the internet or your iPhone App to get customizable information on the movies you seek. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette print-based listings may have seen their last days.  According to the article, “the top two U.S. chains, Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc., have begun to reduce or eliminate the small-type listings showing the start times for movies at individual theaters.” For those who still use the newspaper to get movie information, this could be another reason to abandon their subscription; as if they needed more. But come on people, let’s move out of the Stone Age and embrace the convenience and wonder that is the Internet. I really do enjoy watching trailers in HD right on my Mactop before making a decision to spend my hard-earned dollars on a movie. For me, pretty pixels work way harder than ink when selling a “talkie”. It makes me wonder why media companies still take out full-page ads promoting their films in newspapers. I find them a nuisance and wouldn’t put up a fight if they went the way of the Edsel.

I came across an interesting video post on Business Insider discussing the subject of how traditional media and new media are after different things and how that effects relationships with independent content creators.  The gist of it is that independent content creators may shy away from networks because they want to retain the control of what they produce. This way, they own their own creation, and don’t have to give up intellectual property rights up to a big conglomerate and they can spread their content over multiple access points instead of  just one access point (e.g., a network television station). Why wouldn’t you want your opus to be found in multiple formats like embedded clips, on YouTube, on blip.tv on your own branded website, etc. While the Interweb continues to be an open format that encourages content distribution via multiple platforms, old media continues to find innovative ways to control it’s content and how and where its audience views aforementioned content, thus, in my opinion, missing out on opportunities to showcase fresh new content from people not willing to give up their intellectual property rights. On the other end of the spectrum are companies like Blip.tv which encourages the sharing of content AND offers distribution via multiple platforms. What’s ridunculously cool is that if you have a high-quality vid, blip.tv even allows you to distribute across the TiVo platform, which I find extremely cool. For more on Blip.tv and how independent content creators are taking the Internet by storm, click on  the video below for an interview with Dina Kaplan, Co-Founder of blip.tv

If you’re like me, you probably use the Internets multiple times throughout the day. Much of my time is spent seeking out engaging or entertaining content. However, what was once a search for the printed word has now turned into the hunt for great video content. So says a report in an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project which concludes that 62% of online adults watch video when surfing the Internet. The report also states that video viewing has doubled since 2006. Those are big numbers and they are growing. Viewing habits of television and movies are currently transforming and migrating to the Internet. More and more people are hybrid-ing their computers and their televisions so that they can enjoy on-demand type entertainment via their computer instead of via their cable or satellite option. This has also caused a decrease in demand for cable and satellite services because much of the entertainment you find on the Internet bypasses the monthly fee that is so common among cable operators. Also, sites like msnbc.com offer free streams of nightly programs like the Rachel Maddow show among others. And, you can access these shows from computer or phone via podcasts. Whether you’re a couch potato or world traveler, you can now have your video wherever you want and whenever you want.  Could this mean the beginning of the end for the boob tube? Probably not. But the Internet and television and silver screen are starting to blur.

According to a recent Business Wire post a recent survey of 2,521 people was conducted by Adweek Media and Harris Interactive that suggests television ads were more helpful in making purchase decisions than other forms of media like newspapers, radio, search engines and banner ads. What? You mean traditional forms of media are more helpful in making a purchase decision than that newfangled internet all the kids are using? According to this poll, yes. Could this be because people go to their computers for different reasons than they do their televisions? In days of old, people went to their computers for business reasons or to craft a report. It’s been just recently that people have been going to their computers for watching SNL videos, tweeting and playing World Of Warcraft. But we have always gone to our beloved television sets expecting television commercials. Heck, commercials are even part of the draw during the biggest event on television: the Super Bowl. The point is, we expect television to entertain us AND to tell us what a Hemi is so we can be informed when we buy our next car or truck. By contrast, we expect the Internet to be this wonderful place where you can be entertained, informed, inspired, linked-in etc., all whilst not being influenced by advertising. I don’t know about you, but I think ads get in the way on the Internet. They are like small nuisances that pop up and can be easily ignored once you train your eye to do so. And by the way, guess which type of ads pollsters said they ignored most? You guessed it, banner ads.