Digital Media Explosion

The digital marketplace has  fostered the growth of a “sharing economy”. 

• Ebay launched an online barter and auction site where people could buy and sell just about anything. 
• Amazon exploded into the online space creating a site where customers could buy just about anything without going to a physical store. 
• VRBO and AirBnB provide opportunities for consumers to rent and “share” vacation space that challenge the traditional vacation model and making it easier to less expensive to travel. 
• Uber and Lyft have created a shared driving opportunity that challenges the traditional taxi system. 

Peer to Peer marketing has seen tremendous growth with the social media marketplace.  Most recently Lyft announced an enhancement to their App tailored specifically to businesses.  The functionality introduced will be very helpful to business customers and the differention and diversification strenghthens Lyft position competing with Uber in this space.  It may be that Uber is the “consumer” choice while Lyft carves out a niche for business customers.

Moonlightingapp.com  is a new “peer to peer” model for small businesses.  Created by entrepreneurs in Charlottesville, VA this site provides a marketplace for consumers looking for business services from painting, plumbing to professional services such as legal, or marketing and connects with small businesses looking for business.   This is certainly an opportunity for all the freelance workers out there.

Digital Marketing is the future and has changed the way companies do business.  Marketers are more challenged to leverage and use digital marketing and to balance the traditional  marketing strategies of mass media advertising with SEO and online ads and direct mail with email and SMS texting.  Traditional sales channels are being challenged with online channels requiring companies to expand sales to new channels while maintaining traditional call centers.   The peer to peer marketing models that have launched are challenging traditional industries but making it more important to maintain and market a digital presence.  This is just getting started and there is so much new content coming our way to make our lives easier and challenge traditional marketing!