Paul McEnany: ad:tech's For The People, Part 2.
Diagram above by David Armano.
"For me personally technology is all about freedom," says Director of Buzz marketing at Microsoft Sean Carver.
My openness makes it easy to find exactly what I want, when I want, without the need for the one-way messaging that is the status quo for our business.
[Check out: Social Networks and Consumer Generated Media: Re-examining the Value Proposition, Thursday, April 26, 2:45pm-3:45pm]
Sure, I watch plenty of TV, but I haven't seen a television commercial in weeks. That is, besides on YouTube, but that's reserved only for the incredibly good and the hopelessly bad. I spend copious amounts of time on the web, but with robust ad blocking software, I hardly ever see a banner ad, pop-up or the like. I still listen to the radio, but the play button on the IPod is pressed at the mere hint of a break. I don't read magazines. I don't read newspapers.
[Check out: The On-Demand Universe, Wednesday, April 25, 10:45am-11:45am]
So, for all my openness, my consumption resembles this chart. I talk to people, who talk to other people, with brands and recommendations flying all around. But, there is no tolerance for the unwanted, the unrequested. I have no patience for interruption, and neither should you.
As Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy Public Relations said, "Consumers are generating everything from their own entertainment to their own advertising (and often they are one in the same). All these messages are highly personal, driven by the passion of individuals. More than ever, the personal side of Ad-Tech is about marketing for the people, by the people - and what role professional marketers have to play in this."
Well, maybe it's marketing for the people by the people, but I don't think you can call it advertising.
[Check out: The Next Big Thing: Is Advertising Really the Solution? Wednesday, April 25, 12:00pm-1:00pm]
So, the picture should be even clearer. Advertising is dead, but marketing isn't. We've started to adapt to this new environment by doing the only thing we could do, stop advertising, and just embrace the humanity of it all.
Now, we've become conversationalists, trying desperately to elicit some response where before we simply ignored it. And that's a good thing. The implication is that we no longer own it or control it. Now we earn it.
[Check out: The Art of Conversation: Establishing Brand Dialog in the Digital Era, Tuesday, April 24, 4:00pm-5:00pm]
And it's so important, because it's all about people now. Sure, it's always been about people on some level, but before we spoke about consumers with a more war-like attitude of targeting and capturing them. It is this 'us vs. them' mentality that stole our popular credibility in the first place. Luckily, we're all in this together.
While "targeting" the right consumers is more important than ever, our focus is expanding to trust, to improving the lives of our customers. It's evidenced when you hear ad:tech attendees like Carver say, "The first question that should be hardwired in our product skulls is how will this help someone do something better, or faster or with more enjoyment...my mom, myself, my friends, etc. If we didn't believe in our technology and the effort then there would be no enjoyment in bringing an app to market. In the end today's market and media should be about many levels of choice and the opportunity to participate at whatever level a person finds most rewarding."
[Check out: The Path to One-to-One Marketing: The Evolution of Behavioral Targeting, Tuesday, April 24, 10:45am-11:45am]
And, the same pierces through the fabric of Yahoo!, when senior product director Richard Frankel says, "Yahoo!'s mission is 'to connect people to their passions, their communities, and the world's knowledge.' If we succeed at this mission then everything we do improves the lives of consumers. We know we are getting it right when consumers come to Yahoo! and stay here in droves."
The same can be said of advertising agencies. We're still in the business of selling products and services. That never changed, but we just finally realized that making money isn't mutually exclusive with retaining a descent level of righteousness and connection.
As Harold Mann of Mann Consulting said, "But those that definitely work to improve people's lives tend to make money more easily. When the money is the byproduct of the work and not the reason for it, it is easier to sustain one's career."
My point is that while fear swirls throughout the traditional towers of advertising, we should be rejoicing together in the knowledge that when we go to work tomorrow, we can stop talking about interrupting, annoying, and pestering a passive target into a purchase, but focus on working with our customers towards a more mutually satisfying goal. And, when the consumers get what they want, when they want, and we make a little money facilitating the process, we can all sleep better at night.
[ad:tech check out: The State of the Agency, Thursday, April 26, 4:00pm-5:00pm]
Breathe easy. Technology has made marketing all about the people. This time for real.
Paul, On ad:tech's behalf and ours, thank you! The Editors
Paul McEnany is a new media and marketing strategist at Levenson and Hill in Dallas, TX and works with clients in business categories ranging from logistics to QSR. He is a contributor to Beyond Madison Avenue, one of the most popular marketing blogs as well as his own personal marketing blog, Hee Haw Marketing. A budding activist, he can be reached at paul.mcenany@gmail.com.
