Digital video is taking over whether it is on the newest app that helps share your every move, or the pop-up video that you can’t get to go away when you’re streaming the radio. New Media is breaking the old model for how to reach your audience.

I quickly tallied up a list of where I saw new media breaking into my day to day life, here are just a few: Pandora, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Twitch, YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook Live, and even Waze tried to sell me some hot-wings from a gas station I was passing on my way to work. Talk about real time marketing, good thing I didn’t have a hankering for some spicy wings.

I think there is some wisdom in the words of Sherlock Holmes from the Series Elementary:

“Behold, Watson. A generation lost in narcissism. A populous that believes no experience is worth having unless it’s been uploaded and received its fair share of hits. For whom the pinnacle of achievements is the moment you crush your genitalia on a metal railing and receive meme status.”

All jokes a side, I’ve worked with a lot of different new media companies/talent, and with each origin story they have a different point of entry for realizing their goals, “Just for fun” or for fame and fortune. We can learn something from this new media wave. Almost all of the bigger new media talents/companies, that I’ve worked with, say from the start, “I make the content that I love, or that I would want to see” and when it catches on with an audience they say “Well I guess other people love it too!”

Starting a new media campaign I believe that this should be at the core,“I make the content that I love, or that I would want to see.” Take what your company has to offer and be authentic with your audience and why you love your product or service. We should still have structure to the campaign, don’t get me wrong, but there should be that spark that drives you that also drives the content. I’ve worked in both camps, both on big budget national commercial spots and on new media network projects. The key to success with the production process is to meld the more rigid production schedule/creative process and the loose carefree mantra “I create what I want when I want”. Even new media giants have to have discipline on what to produce, when to and where to post, and scheduled time to connect and reach out to loyal viewers.

New media has the power to reach a wider audience across multiple platforms, desktop/mobile, any other digital device, even in a store dressing room. New media can open the right doors with minimal cost. The key is to make quality content, which can be a fraction of the cost of large interruption marketing campaigns. New media helps get your brand exposed to the right people at the right time, It lets your audience know you are human and connected with them, it helps turn the needle on website traffic and SEO, which then leads to more sales and loyal customers willing to spread the word!

As we see the this transition from carefully planned and scripted big budget production to the free spirited new media mantra, it makes me wonder, “what is the next big thing?” What is next in the undiscovered world of new media production? My bet… “Live Video”