dodge those costs, ram that content.

The most evolutionary mash up of new marketing strategy of this year could easily be the new 2009 Dodge Ram Challenge.

The ultimate ‘pro’ for digital marketing is the lack of airtime costs that brands do not need to spend as with traditional media such as TV, Radio and Print. However the ultimate ‘con’ for digital is that no current online channel can offer the same volume of targetted audience as the traditional 30 second spot with as little leg work.

Dodge and its creative team on the Dodge Ram Challenge, have made what I find to be the ultimate mashup of new and traditional media.

Dodge decided to film an 8 episode reality show, and spot advertise on male focused television traditions on Spike TV and Monday Night Football. The ads directed people online to webepisodes of  a wildly ‘man’centric super challenge using beefy pickup trucks and some of our sexe’s most profiled ‘life’ characters. They got director Tony Scott to create the series and decided to only stream the show online in webisodes.

Deciding to put the entire concept online and voiding producing a full feature television series is cost cutting mastery. Its like choosing a granoloa bar instead of bacon and eggs for breakfast. Sure bacon and eggs sounds good, tastes good, reminds you of good ole times with the family around the table. But the granola bar option, lets you eat on the fly, get more done, keeping you light yet energized with enough money in your pocket for lunch later that day.

This concept is a starting point to something much bigger. As online entertainment continues to grow as a medium of choice to view popular culture, will television soon be reduced to syndicated re-runs and advertisements? Online channels continue to develop strategy on how to cost effectively deliver their programming online, and as I continue to watch more programming off web portals I really wonder as to how far away are we to simply migrating the computer into the living room space formerly occupied by the television.