Listen to John Follis and other top marketing thought leaders discuss the most relevant topics of the day. http://themarketingshow.net

To give you an idea of 500 million, that’s the popuations of the US, Japan and Germany, combined. Watch ABC clip.

NewTeeVee has apparently been tipped off by “sources” that Apple will not only release a new Apple TV but that streaming TV show rentals are also on the way. Apple’s waning interest in one of its own products that Steve Jobs calls a “hobby” for the company could be turning itself around to compete with Hulu and Netflix.

According to a new study from Nielsen showing Internet usage in April 2010, 22% of the time, you’re engaging with social media. Also, a few more telling takeaways from the report:

• Currently, three quarters of Internet users worldwide visit a social network or blog when they go online — that’s a 24% increase over last year.
• Joe Average (the international version) spends 66% more time on these sites than he did a year ago — for example, your average user spent 6 hours on these sites in April 2010, while last year he spent 3 hours, 31 minutes.
• Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia make an appearance among the world’s most popular brands.

See full report at: http://mashable.com/2010/06/15/time-spent-online-nielse

The past decade saw a seismic shift in marketing communications as blogs, podcasts, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter led the media evolution. It’s an exciting time. Yet, with this cool evolution the focus on a clear, compelling company or product message has often been devalued. In many cases the over-reliance on media and technology has shifted the focus away from the resolving the key (and usually tough) marketing issues necessary for growing a successful business.

The most successful companies and organizations (Apple, Google, Team Obama, etc) work with top, independent marketing firms and experts to help them develop and maintain a strong brand message realizing that the media and technology is only a tool to help them get their message out.

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