Mario Sundar's Speakeasy

Fact #1: Online marketing budgets to increase by 20 percent in 2006

Fact #2: Rich media was selected by 45 percent of respondents as the fast growing ad format

(Source: The William Blair & Company, in collaboration with the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association via iMedia)

Now that we’ve established the fact that online rich media advertising is bound to grow by leaps and bounds, let me segue onto a continuation of my earlier post where I spoke about the evolution of the web as a medium for videos. From a corporate marketer’s perspective I’m sure you’re thinking, that’s great, but how can I leverage the power of the rich media web to market my company’s products better. Here are 2 questions you may be asking:

Q1: As a corporate marketer, is it time to jump onto the rich media – audio/video bandwagon?

A: Absolutely! If you don’t trust me, ask Scoble or read this recent post of his where he talks about how: “Google is missing an important marketing angle: video demos“. Yes, if you’re a high-tech corporation and you haven’t created your video demo yet, think twice.

Q2: Are large companies (Fortune 500) getting the larger picture regarding corporate mediacasts? Are we there yet?

A: Most definitely. It’s interesting how the tech behemoths are slowly but surely gravitating towards rich media marketing communication tools as they realize it’s a necessity. Take for e.g. IBM & its corporate podcasting initiative run by new media communications manager, Ben Edwards.

At IBM he launched a popular podcast series and is running their New Media Communications initiative. He encourages people at IBM to use social media tools — podcasting, blogging, etc. His interest is how these tools are used across a large enterprise. (Source: Halley Suitt)

The best way to understand IBM’s podcasting strategy is to hear it from Ben Edwards himself. Check out this great interview of Ben Edwards and Christopher Barger (IBM) by John Furrier (Podtech). Here are some snippets:

IBM Corporate Podcast Policy:

As our employees become interested in generating their own content, I think the model for us in corporate is to really encourage those who have talent, who have a good voice, and who are going to improve our ability to be able to create markets, make new markets, and win business and to find them and help them set up and enable them to blog and to podcast and to reach out.

Why Corporate Podcasting? Why Now?:

I think there’s a general sense that people are struggling a little bit with the old ways of marketing and selling product services and they’ve leapt on this (podcasting) because it can be so compelling and it can be so powerful when done well. As Chris says, there is a lot of interest brewing and bubbling on

Q3: Alright I’m sold on it. How can I get started?

For an easy step-by-step tutorial on adding corporate podcasts/videocasts to your media mix, check my future post that outlines the 3 stages to creating a great podcast program, here.

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