Entries Tagged 'Supply and Demand' ↓

You’ve all read my take on the economics of advertising. Consumers supply time and attention to advertisers and should receive the money advertisers pay to reach them. I’m almost ready to pull the wraps off of a new business that aims to make this economic efficiency a reality. (please sign up to get more details)

A frequent question I get is “well then what happens to media companies?” There’s a simple fix too. You and I consume TV shows. We should be paying for the media that we find valuable and want to consume. Now before you shudder at the thought of having to pay for news and entertainment, remember, you’d be paying for it with a portion of the ‘advertiser stimulus payment’ you receive every month.

I was just reading in TechCrunch about a company that is looking to tackle the other half of this economic riddle. Contenture is looking to create an economic fix to enable publishers big and small to get paid by consumers for their valuable, advertising free content. Makes a ton of sense…as long as consumers have extra money in their pocket to pay for it.

Consumers get paid by advertisers for the time and information we provide to them. And then media companies get paid by consumers for the valuable content they provide to us. And an efficient market is born.

Remember supply and demand from economics 101? The guiding principle of economics…buyers have demand, sellers have supply. When supply equals demand you have an efficient market.

So the question I want to pose in this short post is this…

Who owns the supply of time, attention, loyalty and personal information that advertisers are demanding to the tune of $300 billion per year? Or to put it more personally, who owns your time, attention, loyalty, and personal info that advertisers are demanding to the tune of $1,000 per year?

If you think the companies that aggregate consumers (TV networks, radio stations, web publishers, billboard owners, mailing list collectors) own the supply (including you), then the status quo is fine and all is good.

But if you are intrigued by the idea that the supply of our time and attention belongs to us, and consumers should be the beneficiary of advertisers’ demand, then raise your hand and let me know. Follow OurSeat on Twitter and Facebook. And tell your friends. It’s their money too.