No Man’s Blog

Special report on Internet Advertising at the latest Economist. Well worth reading, although for someone in the business there is not much new to learn. Its growing, its getting more innovative and measurable, it is very cost-effective and increasingly important for brand building. One thing I found very relevant to an interesting blogversation we had last week was the ways in which Rishad Tobaccowala, the “chief innovation officer” of Publicis describes these changes.  Reading his analysis made me realise how still lengthy is the way traditional marketing/advertising need to walk in order to adapt to this brave new world.

Traditional marketers, like Mr. Tobaccowala still perceive marketing as a war. Commenting on the recent developments, he first likens traditional advertising to “an atom bomb dropped on a big city”. He goes on to describe segmentation, the biggest trend in the last two centuries as “dropping conventional bombs on villages”. By contrast, the new advertising models based on internet technologies amount to innovation. Instead of bombs, says Mr Tobaccowala, advertisers now “make lots of spearheads and then get people to impale themselves.”

Is this a bad dream? Who is this Rambo? Advertising is not Nam mate….

What about dialouge? participation? conversation? entertainment? permission? enrichment? engagement? communities?  Don’t you had enough with this chauvinistic-militant approach to marketing already? 

You read this and you understand that as long as the old moguls continue to perceive people at best as mere ‘consumers’ and at worst as ‘target audience‘ that need to be ‘nailed‘ there won’t be a real change in practice. It is not just about new technologies but about a far deeper change of perceptions and a profound makeover to the symbolic world of marketing.

Make love (to your customers), not war!