Microsite.com

Not that we needed any further proof that traditional media is being turned upside down, but here it is: When Senator Barack Obama announced his decision to run for president on January 16, he made the announcement in a video posted on his Microsite — www.barackobama.com. (It is a Microsite, and not a typical website, but I’ll get to that later.)

Actually, he did it two ways. He posted the video on his Microsite and on YouTube. Smart.

Yesterday’s BusinessWeek.com featured a section titled “Taking the Pulse of Marketing: A survey of leading thinkers, gathered to judge the advertising world’s Effie Awards, offers a valuable snapshot of an industry in flux.”

I initially found the premise curious.

BusinessWeek wanted to find out about the marketing industry’s state of flux. Specifically, how emerging media and Web 2.0 technologies are revolutionizing the world of marketing. (I assume that’s what “industry in flux” meant.)

In case anyone missed the articles in most major papers today, a new study found that a majority of marketers believe that television advertising has become less effective.

The specifics: The TV & Technology survey was done by the Association of National Advertisers, a trade group, and Forrester Research. Conducted last month, the study is based on a survey of 78 advertisers across a variety of industries. It found that 62% of marketers believe TV ads have become less effective in the past two years.

To follow up on last week's news about advertisers losing faith in TV advertising, today's WSJ states that online video has been a real hit and a real threat to broadcast TV (who knew?).

Americans watched more than 300 million videos on Google's YouTube in December alone, and the amount of time spent watching video online grew 34% last year.

Worse, according to the article, Google's new plans to wring advertising revenue out of online video could eventually cause broadcasters a lot of pain.

CBS Corp.'s fourth-quarter net income fell 15%, reflecting station sales and sliding advertising sales. Advertising sales dropped 7%. Radio revenue slid 10%.

Years from now, when the history of traditional advertising is written (or shot in something like HD 3D), I bet the events of the past two days figure prominently. No, you didn’t miss a headline proclaiming the end of an era. Nor did you miss a top-level media executive issuing a formal surrender.

Last week, I suggested that three recent events would mark the tipping point in the migration from the traditional advertising model (the one based on interrupting programming and forcing selling messages on to viewers, listeners, and readers) to a post-advertising model. The three events were:

1) InBev’s purchase of Anheuser-Busch and its need to cut costs drastically to fund the transaction, which will likely mean significant cuts in Bud’s marketing budgets.

2) GM, fourth-largest advertiser in the U.S., announced it was cutting its marketing budget, again.

This morning’s New York Times carries an article about the Olympics broadcast and mistakenly, I think, categorizes the battle as network vs. web. “[T]he Olympics are also a powerful illustration of the current battle line between the big business of network television and the emerging medium of Web video.”

Hey, there is no battle between the network and anything or anyone. Any more.