Transmedia: The art of unbundled (commercial) conversations

The 'advertising' and 'branded content' of tomorrow will contain distributed links of those who pay to be there. Technology will work on our behalf to bring those 'offerings' our way, because we've asked for them.

Doc Searls' Project VRM, where consumers signal businesses about wants and needs instead of the other way around, will be a form of distributed media with links.

With classifieds like Marktplaats, each item has a link, and those could be aggregated elsewhere and passed around, depending on the need specified in a user's 'signal.' Whoever pays the most gets first in line. The money will be made for matching consumer needs/signals with 'offerings' (business goods and services). This real-time match-making is something the digital Marketing Eco System can handle very efficiently.




Commerce-generating applications will make it all happen, whether it's via a closed system like Twitter or an API at the application layer of the digital Marketing Eco System itself.

That's just one possibility of moving 'commercial conversation' into the digital Marketing Eco System and the stream. Other commercial formats will certainly be developed, but the possibilities of unbundled 'advertising' are limitless, all made possible by the portable link.

Media companies framing their added value for 'companies, formerly known as advertisers' into bundled advertising concepts limit their range of possible solutions. And, thus, limit their potential added value while exploring new business models.