X|Media|Lab: Mike McGraw

Digital media pioneer Mike McGraw (New York) says the two things exciting him the most in the digital arena are the proliferation of third party web/phone aps and the “social tsunami” rolling through older demographics and redefining the space.

Mike McGraw is Managing Partner of Big Fuel and is one of the international mentors at X|Media|Lab, Commercialising Ideas, in Auckland from May 22-24. The lab is designed to help local digital media companies get their ideas to market.

What is exciting you most right now in the digital arena?

Several things are exciting me at the moment but I'll briefly mention two.

First, the last twelve months has seen the social tsunami roll through older demographics and literally redefine the space.  Facebook, for example, started as a medium to frame the very recent past, the present and the very near future but now it's becoming a archival vehicle that persistently re-connects long forgotten chapters of our past with amazing ease and vividness. These historical pods are popping up everywhere and they exist in kind of a time warp where the richness of the content and the dialogue around it creates a suspension of disbelief, much like a great period film.  We always think of virtual worlds existing in the future but maybe we'll start seeing a turn back as people create nostalgic recreations of memorable moments with new consumer grade modeling tools. Move over "Second Life", here comes "Past Life"!

The other thing I'm excited about is the proliferation of third party web/phone aps and the integration of the two is absolutely amazing.  The Apple notion of "There's an ap for that" is the next step in evolution from the age of search where the mantra was, "There's an answer for that."  Now the formula seems to be:  Question + Answer + Ap = Solution.  At Big Fuel we have really taken the notion of a virtual workspace to the extreme.  Last year we could run the business from our laptops, now we can almost do it from our iPhones. This creates great efficiencies in a creative shop like ours where people are optimizing their own biological clocks against individual workloads. 

I'm a big Buckminster Fuller fan and he had this idea that technology is this kind of "just in time" force that tends to correct the problems it creates before it annihilates us. Maybe this is technologies way of keeping us out of cars and off airplanes so the planet can take a breather. Of course, this coming from a guy who's about to jump on a plane to Auckland. 

What are some of the challenges of ‘commercialising ideas’ in the current economic climate?

I guess it's no surprise that access to venture capital is a problem right now and a lot of great ideas that we desperately need are going unfunded.  I do see signs of the that changing in the digital space as we seem to be pulling out of the nose dive as of late. Also, digital initiatives often don't have the capital requirements that other sectors do so bootstrap operations still are alive and well. 

I'd say another challenge, which has certainly been exacerbated by the meltdown, continues to be this belief that content on digital platforms should be free. This puts a lot of burden on the ad supported models out there and creates a huge challenge when trying to integrate a brand's messages into our skeptical little worlds. As a consumer engagement agency, we are on the front lines of this challenge and I do believe the rules of engagement are finally starting to come into focus.  Of course Facebook could decide tomorrow to kick advertisers to the curb, charge a $1/month for the service and change the whole face of social marketing in 12 hours.

What is your "Big Idea" for 2009?

I'm fascinated by "ground swell" anything and what's happening with content creation, marketing, politics, economics and publishing on the grassed roots level always inspires a few big ideas.  At Big Fuel we are spending a lot time tapping into emerging social movements wherever they might be and working to creating an environment that aggregates and compensates that awareness.  We're just weeks away from launching a new platform called the Big Fuel network, where we hope to provide fluid platform that brands, producers and publishers can work comfortably and from a place of aligned interests.

Mike McGraw bio

Mike McGraw has been at the forefront of emerging content development for most of his career. He has always maintained a priority to deliver content to the most relevant audiences through the most relevant channels.

Mike currently oversees all digital strategy, content distribution and operations for Big Fuel, a digital ad agency based in New York. At Big Fuel Mike uses his experience with on-air, online and mobile platforms to develop effective strategies for clients like Johnston and Johnston, AOL, Fox, Unilever and MTV.

Before joining Big Fuel, Mike founded Link Media Management, a digital content strategy firm in Los Angeles that produced HD content for pay TV and maintained an innovative consulting practice in the entertainment sector. During this time Mike also completed a year long digital transformation project for Australian broadcaster SBS.

Before Link, Mike worked in Sydney heading up broadband content development for Telstra’s Broadband Service Bigpond.  In this role, Mike oversaw launches of several on-line services, including Australia’s first large-scale music download site, an on-demand movie and premium TV service, two national sports channels and the largest online games portal in the Pacific Rim.

Prior to Telstra, Mike served as Managing Director for Massive Interactive in Sydney where he built a development team that engineered groundbreaking iTV and broadband service roll-outs for Austar, Foxtel, Telstra and Sky New Zealand.

Mike also gained considerable experience in pay television as VP of production and programming for Country Music Television (CMT). Mike also owned and operated Moving Story Pictures, an independent broadcast production company offering programming consulting, production, branding and other creative services to the pay TV industry. Some of Moving Story Pictures’ clients included: CBS Cable, A&E, Sony Music, Greystone Entertainment, Automatic Pictures, Country Music Television (CMT) and The Nashville Network (TNN).