Interview with Melissa

Ant Farm Interactive is Melissa Honabach’s company that she started 8 years ago this month. She sat down with me and I transcribed the interview here. You can hear the interview HERE

Interview Questions for Melissa

1. What is your name and what business are you in?

Melissa Honabach, nurun | ant farm, interactive marketing

2. What does AF produce?

We produce a lot of different things like marketing plans, websites, interactive ads, search engine programs, DVDs, online video, mobile applications and more. We use all of these ‘products’ to help brands and organizations connect with consumers and create relationships.

3. How long has AF been around?

We started in 1999, exactly 8 years ago.

4. Who did you start AF with?

Michael Koziol – we worked together at BellSouth before starting the agency.

5. What will the future look like for online marketing? Will it change much in the next 5 years?

Online or interactive marketing is going to continue to be grow in importance and will continue to take share from other types of marketing and advertising like television, radio, print, and direct. Beyond just growing, interactive is going to take on more and more of the qualities of other types of advertising. With sites like YouTube, Joost, Joox, NBCi, and others, you are already seeing the internet emerge as a broadcast medium.

6. From a marketing perspective, do you think that the internet will pass television and print in as far as dollars spent in the next 10 years?

Not TV – television is still the best way to reach a mass audience and build a national brand. While there will be shifting of budgets, TV will still be ahead of internet. Print will also likely stay ahead of internet but not for all that long. Interesting things are happening today and will continue. When magazines like Teen People and Elle Girl drop their print pubs in favor of websites, it is a very telling sign and shows that certain audiences are better reached and engaged online than through print and certain types of content are better enjoyed online. At the same, People, Newsweek, Time, and other mainstays of the magazine world are not going to go anywhere. However, there has been speculation for a while that The Wall Street Journal could drop its printed paper and go online only. That would be a big deal and could signal the end of print as we know it.

7. If so, what do you see as happening in the next decade for marketing on the internet?

The internet will continue to grow as I already mentioned but more than that – it will be a significant part of all other types of media. TV shows can be watched on TV or online. Magazine articles in the print editions more and more often reference websites with online content. Internet will be part of everything within 5 years.

8. Do you see platforms such as Second Life as being a viable, marketable arena for companies to advertise in?

Second Life is very interesting – a great opportunity but also a cautionary tale. It proves that many people want and would enjoy an immersive and interactive venue to connect and communicate. But from a marketing point of view – it is also a story of too many marketers jumping into something too fast because it is the next big thing. Many hard core SL users were put off by the rapid over commercialization of the platform. At the core, Second Life demonstrates a new kind of community and even commerce interface.

9. Who do you view as being a pioneer in the ad business? Why?

Kevin O’Connor the founder of Doubleclick. Doubleclick had a vision for making the internet an efficient and measurable medium through its ad serving platform.

10. Do you think that outside of the box advertising is going to someday surpass typical advertising such as banner ads, :30 television spots, and print? I am referring to ideas such as the Cartoon Network light box debacle, or BMW films.

No. Advertising will always mostly live within media. I don’t think much of gimmicky programs like the cartoon network one. BMW Films was amazing and showed people that the web is a place where high production value entertainment will work.

11. Do you think Seth Godin has it right? Should we rethink our ideas about the way advertising is done and abandon our traditional methodology of delivering ads to the public to create a new world of marketing?

We have already rethought how advertising is done. Advertising can now be immediately measurable. Search has redefined how people shop and how marketers advertise. This wil continue – so in that regard, yes he is right.

12. Do you have any ideas on what the future of advertising will look like?

Minority report? – Advertising needs to be relevant, entertaining, but not intrusive, less advertising, more personalized integrated content.

13. Who is going to be behind it, are they still in high school or do you think they are working around us now?

Google and the next college kid working in his dorm room that hits on what people want before they realize it themselves.

14. Lastly, could summarize your thoughts on the dot com bust and what it has taught us?

I only know what it taught me – 1) great ideas and innovation do not replace fundamentals and 2) everybody is a great guy when his business is going up…you learn someone’s professional and personal character when things aren’t going so well for them.