The Long Tail Has Destroyed Mass Media

Entering the same room in which I sat somewhere around 1998 or 1999 when then head of Leo Burnett promised “not on my watch” will Leo Burnett ever go public, I thought, “my how times have changed.” The room, however, is exactly the same; dark and lit like a carnival ride.

As ad:tech Chair Drew Ianni took the stage to introduce Wired Magazine Editor in Chief Chris Anderson who was the keynote speaker at ad:tech Chicago, he introduced something else, ad:tech’s new working tagline “The Event for Modern Marketing” and gave an overview of ad:tech’s expansion into other overseas markets as well as the growth of the online marketing space in general to its current level $20B.

The major theme of Anderson’s speech was the notion mass media was an anomaly and our current world of fragmentation, niche interests and the resulting Long Tail is the norm. Before mass media existed, humans naturally fell into small niches caused partially by geographic separation and partially by natural individual interests. Mass media temporarily pulled together people who, given natural individuality, wouldn’t normally find themselves together.