Manuel Angel Alonso Coto

I’m lecturing an online session this week in for the Master in Digital Marketing in which I’m discussing the digital gap (one of the main challenges faced by online advertising) with the students. And we have been reviewing how the problem does not only consist of the different speeds of Internet adoption around the world: there’s also a digital gap between the users of each advanced market in the first world. Have a look at the graphic below… And, apart from education, one of the key factor is clear: age!

And now McCain’s InternetGate raises… While Mr. Obama (1961) uses Internet for his campaign on a daily basis, Candidate McCain (1936) has stated he doesn’t use a computer… I guess you have heard of it… If you don’t use a computer, should you run the country? That’s one of the questions most American Internet users are discussing. At a panel of Internet reps from the Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Obama, Paul, and Romney campaigns, Tracy Russo from the Edwards campaign argued that that any candidate who doesn’t use a computer has no business being president…

John McCain’s representative, Mark Soohoo, came to McCain’s defense: “You don’t need to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country.” “But what about the frame of reference that comes from using online tools?” Russo asked. The Internet is powering the global economy, she said. “It’s like explaining e-mail, Facebook, Google, Twitter . . . to your grandmother and then asking them to apply that to governing.”

The political debate goes on while a lot of brands keep thinking that if they can not reach the likely President of USA through digital channels, Internet marketing should only be used for commercializing products and services to the youth… What do you think?

Best

Manuel A. Alonso Coto

Posted on 8 July 2008 in E-MARKETING

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