Online Audience Grows in Effort to Escape Reality

The Wall Street Journal had an article this week about the unemployed and interestingly I think the article gives some direction to marketers in this downturn. It turns out that the unemployed are flocking to digital activities as a way to pass the time cheaply (leisure minutes the article calls it). Internet games and gambling, Netflix, Twitter, Social Networks and Blogs have all seen an up tick in use during this downturn.

Internet marketing, as we all know, is here to stay, but the flight to leisure on the internet suggests that the online audience in social networks and gaming may grow online marketing even faster despite the downturn. One man quoted in the article has sent out 652 tweets since October as a way to keep in touch with his network – something he has time to do since he is unemployed. Perhaps he would not be such a loyal tweeter if he had not become unemployed and had the time to devote to “writing.” Right now Twitter does not have a solid revenue model but users, like this man, may drive the service to a model faster than good times would have - the downturn may actually be maturing the market faster. Marketers are going benefit from this by being able to target a larger online audience than might have existed in good times.

The question of course is will companies benefit now or later – will they start taking advantage of increasing online audiences or wait until the economy turns up? I see strong potential for smart companies to strengthen their brand identity during this downturn by figuring out how to capitalize on this escape from reality driven audience. True, this is not going to lead to immediate sales but the past shows that strong branding in a downturn can lead to greater rewards when the good times return.

--Kate Grossman