FEATURE

Dot Com Predictions

by Paul Boghosian

With the economy slowing, marked by dot coms going out of business, geometric increasing costs of media purchases to reach smaller audiences, the drying up of venture capital and the tightening of bank financing; and radio promos that have demonstrated that cleverness and wild humor do not in themselves generate eyeballs on websites, there will be a rapid return to conventional marketing and media vehicles to reach targeted audiences. Dot coms that succeed will be those that use non computer, "old age" marketing to target select groups with their benefits. I foresee an increased use of 2 step marketing to generate eyeballs on the web site.

First, through strategic partnerships with clearly defined and established organizations, direct mail carrying the endorsement of that organization will be targeted to which it has credibility. Established formats as games and lotteries, first person testimonials, cross promotion reward packages [containing financial incentives] and the select use of travel incentives will be widely prevalent in 2001.

Additionally, those Dot coms that do succeed will uncover the programming keys that will provide the content, herewith television programming, that will lead audiences to a web site, and the content will reinforce the focus and the purposes of the television program. This enlarged definition of programming convergence will result in a win-win between television viewing and PC usage that will result in significantly larger audiences than either medium could achieve on their own.

Producer Paul Boghosian is President of HarborSide Film.