The Medium Can Change the Message

When this technology first came out, I used to drive down the interstate and wonder:

"Who in his right mind would ever go to the expense of an LED billboard when a good old-fashioned paper-based one get the message across?"

I immediately understood the upsides – reduced labor costs for changing ads and ... um, well, it's real bright – but I also immediately understood the downside of the expense of one of these units. Not only that, but every time I would drive by one, I could hear my mother's voice: "Chris, don't leave the TV out in the rain." (the guy who developed this must have been an orphan)

Then recently, I began to notice that the nature of billboard advertising has changed. Local concert venues are paying for ads on LEDs for upcoming events in the near term. Companies I had never seen advertise on traditional BBs are utilizing this medium. Why? For near term events, it is now possible to structure a contract based on your time constraints: I'll take out an LED ad 2 weeks prior to an event IF ticket sales are sluggish (and I will be able to stop the ad the day after the event). Why #2? For smaller clients, it is now possible to structure a contract based on your budget constraints. I may not be able to afford ad space on I-75 24/7 for a month, but I can figure out a way to afford a 10 second spot 6 times an hour from midnight to 5:00 a.m. (especially if my target audience is out cruising at that hour).

In short, the medium has changed the message. When faced with a new medium, it often takes a while to get one's head around the WIIFM*. But eventually, I may catch up with the new medium, I'll "get it," and then I'll get on (bill)board. And THEN, I'll "get it" again and I'll adapt my message to the medium and THEN I'll really be humming. That is what has happened in the billboard industry and I predict that the brain trust of America – the advertising community – will continue to think outside the billboard and come up with increasingly innovative and affordable messaging ideas for this truly remarkable medium.

It's kind of like having a series of well-worn footpaths – dirt lanes parting the grasses to allow passage for the masses ... man, I should have been in advertising – then discovering this incredible breakthrough called concrete and going to the task of paving all of your existing footpaths. This can definitely be a good thing: fewer muddy sneakers upon arrival, for one. But if I just continue to pave footpaths, I will miss the real upside to the innovation of concrete, which is building pedsetrian structures that were never before possible: bridges, overpasses, wheelchair ramps. When I begin to innovate, then the medium will truly begin to change the message.

Oh gee, look! The blog title sez this is supposed to be about learning communities! So here is the twist (drama) and the tie (advertising): The platform of a learning community can just be a new place to move our learning messages. OR, if I really begin to innovate within the new medium, I can change the message. Learning can be impacted and catapulted forward ("Run away! Run away!") in a way never before possible with traditional ILT and WBT delivery methods. I am just beginning to get my head around this, but I think it bodes well for the future of learning.

By the way, here is an interesting read on the history of the billboard and the emergence of LED.

Come get me, Mother. I'm through.

_____________________________

* What's In It For Me

Reposted Interview: The Future of “21st-Century” Training & Development

This links to a Bloomfire interview with Dr. Allen Partridge, eLearning Evangelist at Adobe (man, now that would be a cool business card to hand out, wouldn't it?). He had some interesting things to say about the road ahead with learning communities. In particular, his questions about how to assess learning 2.0 skills are thought-provoking. If communities of practice are to become more central to workers' job requirements, then how will we identify the contributions of the individual in order to assess, reward, correct, etc.?

The nature of free enterprise is that we reach tomorrow's achievements by posing and discussing really good questions today. So for now, Partridge is doing the right thing by asking the right questions.

Come get me, Mother. I'm through.

Article Link: 25 Ways to Engage Contacts in Social Media

I read this article today and I have to admit that my expectations of my own performance on the 25 points was pretty low. I was tickled to see that I am in very good shape (discliamer: self-assessment!) on

11 of them!

If I had much interest in {yawn} Twitter, I would have racked up another 3 or 4. Take a look and see how you are doing and ask yourself how you can do more to engage learners through effective social media.

Come get me, Mother. I'm through.

p.s. OK, who's humming Paul Simon while reading that post?