Making Marketing Services Sexy
...Further Impact from SXSW
"A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter--and getting smarter faster than most companies." The Cluetrain Manifesto
For a number of years now, below-the-line marketing has been where the all the action is. That is, all the revenue growth in the agency business has been coming from the decidedly non-sexy arena of consumer promotions, relationship marketing, and direct marketing. The TV shops know this, and they are now rapidly making adjustments to include these services in their mix. But doing something for money, and doing something because it's the right and natural thing to do is rarely the same thing.
I contend that marketing services agencies have a unique opportunity to gain even more ground, right now. When Coke's CEO stands up and announces to the world that his company does not sell sugar water, but is in fact a media company selling brand impressions, we can see that the field of marketing communications is fast evolving, as healthy changes are daily being made. Today we ask, "How best to connect with the consumer, and share in this branded experience together?"
To survive and grow in this new arena of "Advertainment" we must learn to create brand experiences for our client's customers, not advertising. The consumer will settle for nothing less. Below-the-line shops already do this to some extent; thus, are much better positioned to create even better (deeper) brand experiences, and lead the way in establishing and sustaining enduring brand relationships with the consumer. These relationships are at the core of what's sexy about advertising today.
For years, agency-types have talked about breaking through the clutter to truly connect with the consumer. The problem is the use of traditional means to attempt something new and radical. I'm suggesting we must still find new ways to breakthrough and connect--and that these new solutions will prominently feature the consumer as a participant in, or even shaper of, the message.
What we ultimately need to do is create street-level credibility with the target. There is no better way to do that, than to directly involve the target in the marketing. For example, if Coors Light allowed beer drinkers everywhere to blog, some would surely say they do not like Coors' beer. The idea that Coors would allow that type of message to air on their own media property, instantly creates street-level credibility, because honesty and openness from a large corporation is totally unexpected.
Conversational Media is the new paradigm. The power has shifted to the audience. The result of this awesome shift is new rules for marketers to play by. Those who grasp those rules and play by them will win. Those who refuse to see these changes or minimize their impact will lose. Traditional ad agencies will most often lose. They will lose because they see themselves as creators of TV advertising, which by its very nature is a one-way channel. There's no room (or very little room) for the customer in this time-tested, but tired equation.
What people want today is a voice. They want to be an active participant in a community. TV demands only the most passive involvement and does not offer one a voice, nor any sense of community, except possibly around the water cooler. Since markets are conversations, the task is to facilitate these conversations at every point of contact.