ReveNews
-
NAVIGATION
-
TOPICS
-
THE REVENEWS BLOGGERS
-
QUICK CONTACT
‘All of the Web is a Social Media’
We left off with Bazaarvoice’s Sam Decker giving us outstanding tips on how to get your management team or C-suite executives to consider social marketing experimentation. Today I offer you more social marketing adoption tips but this time a strategic framework for implementing and/or lobbying for them. Tactics are great but we must be strategic if we’re to be effective.
I challenged a group of colleagues to provide social marketing adoption tips against my loaded backdrop: suggesting “interruptive” (aka traditional) marketing is dead. I figure if it’s all but dead or dying then don’t we already have an urgent mandate to move and move now? As it turns out I had a lot to learn.
We’re on Cusp of Dramatic Change
Okay, things are really heating up with this lousy economy — marketers are being challenged and things are, frankly, getting pretty ugly lately in the online sector (check out the Email Civil War as an example!). Things are reaching a fever pitch. Fundamental, core principals of marketing itself are being challenged and people are REALLY freaking out. (need more proof? test this one out!)
As a result of pressure from the inside (CMOs being held more accountable for spending effectiveness) and the outside (customers being better at tuning out ads) the practice of marketing is being forced to re-define itself in many cases.
How so? Issues like ethics, transparency and authenticity are at the focal point. Media-saturated, always-on customers are showing preference for new forms of what I’m calling non-interruptive marketing like “alternate reality” games, branded entertainment and permission-based lead generation. They want to know when “an ad is an ad” and show a strong willingness to play along… but only on their terms. Can you taste the change?
Humans: The Killer, Multi-Channel App
“It was never about the computers. It was never about the applications. It was never about the sales channels. The Internet was always about the people, which is why email, IM, multi-player gaming and similar developments have always been the ‘killer apps’ of the social Web,” says Brian Clark, founder of GMD studios and brainchild of Audi’s award-winning “Art of the Heist” campaign. He’s also the original founder of ReveNews.
Clark, who’s clients also include Ford and Sharp Electronics, is a leader in creating what’s being called “alternate reality” games that immerse willing consumers in brand-sponsored experiences. These bold brands are literally using every form of digital and traditional media to create authentic, transparent and highly experiential experiences for customers who actually want to play along with advertisers.
“Social” online media are included in his approach, obviously, yet Clark spends a good deal of his time educating advertisers and their agencies on what integration *really* means (beyond inclusion of various media types).
In reaction to my disappointment (okay, I’ll admit — outrage) over self-proclaimed social media experts and their constant need to call old ideas “new and revolutionary”, Clark commented how it made him want to ask them…
“What were you doing with your time before you realized all of the Web is a social media?”
Indeed.
Traditional Media: Not Dead Yet!
So is interruptive advertising dead — in traditional media and on the Web (i.e. pop-up and interstitial ads).
“No. Not by a long shot,” says automotive sales lead generation expert, Joe Loll of RockMeJoe.
“But any savvy direct marketer will follow the ROI, not the Cleo. I look at social media advertising as just another channel to add to your marketing arsenal. If the ROI is there, you bet the direct marketing manager is going to be there too,” says Loll.
“You’ll have to go native to win friends and influence others by tuning your message to the context of the setting. Interruptive advertising in a social media setting can be like a loud joke that falls flat at a party.”
Loll says another exciting (challenging) aspect of social media advertising that is the presumed endorsement by being in context. He says it’s just like public relations — in that if it’s in print it’s perceived to be true.
“However this isn’t going to last long,” says Loll who warns, “just look at what happened to affiliate marketing to see where that is going.”
Loll says he’s excited about the tools he sees coming online and the opportunities for social marketing.
“However, I’m not going to give up on my current channels in any short order. Direct Mail and direct TV might be expensive but they are effective and have the ROI to back it up.”
In fact, with the recession in full swing these media channels are becoming highly affordable for pros like Joe.
Hey, what DID happen to affiliate marketing?! Hmm… and we have yet to hear from Rok who REALLY sets me straight. Stay tuned!
Leave a comment