About
Hello. My name’s Matt Deegan and i’m the person who writes Authentic Buzz. I now help companies, specifically broadcast, media and marketing companies, do interesting things with new media and platforms.
I started the site in February 2007 in my closing months at my last proper job, as a development exec at GCap Media. Whilst there I commissioned loads of reserarch with listeners, predmoninantly about their relationships with media and new technology. I was also responsible for launching some different kinds of services. I developed a radio station called Chill (with Bern Leckie) that used the internet to give it a unique voice and relationship with its listeners. I also created Creation Podcasts (with John Hirst), a podcasting business that’s created a variety of direct-to-consumer channels as well as branded content for clients like XBox, First Direct, Orange and BMW.
Sitting back and having a think one day, what I realised was that i’d noticed that consumer behaviour was changing much faster than that of most companies and that to operate in this new world you had to pretty much abandon the rule book and start again.
Developing technology and media literacy has made old ways of doing things more and more irrelevant. Social networks like MySpace and Facebook and personal channels like Flickr and YouTube has left mainstream media out in the cold. Consumers have started creating their own worlds. Worlds that allow them to easily communicate with old friends and make new ones.
Companies now have a choice. They can carry on with their existing marketing and ignore this massive shift, they can try and jump aboard the bangwagon or they can try and understand how consumers are changing and re-invent their messages and communication to speak to their customers, viewers or consumers in a new, authentic voice.
Here at Authentic Buzz i’m going to try and track this ‘new marketing’, celebrating success and highlighting failures. Or maybe we’ll go somewhere else entirely, whatever happens it will be great to have you along for the ride.
Matt
February 2007.