Rapid Eye Movements

Someone once asked me, what is it you’re passionate about? It was a vague question, but it really got me thinking. When you’re passionate about so many things, how do you do decide what takes precedence? And what exactly differentiates a passion from something you simply enjoy doing? I won’t get into my passions, or what I think differentiates a passion from a preference because, well, this isn’t about me. It’s about you. It’s about my wheels turning which makes your wheels turn, which elicits conversation, and so begins the domino effect of social media. People don’t respond to personal journal entries that ramble on about meaningless daily activities and self discovery. People respond to opinions they strongly agree or disagree with, controversial topics and convictions that turn their wheels. So I guess if I want to encourage some responses, I have to start a conversation with you all, rather than with myself.

Here’s a topic that recently got some wheels turning: Is advertising dead?

Here’s my take on it..

If advertising strictly referred to television commercials, I’d say yes. TV is no longer given to us. We take it. We stream it, we watch it on demand, we download it. Commercials don’t have the same reach they used to. There are more media outlets for us to choose from, and impressions on one media vehicle don’t have the impact they could. Advertisements in general don’t touch the consumer in the way they were always intended to because we fast forward through them, we read our news online, we research on the validity of controversial documentaries, or we create them ourselves and post them to Youtube. The world is more educated now- the new generation of consumers don’t believe the empty promises of infomercials, the car salesmen screaming 0% APR just annoys us, we wouldn’t even want to buy something that requires “no money down”. So is advertising doomed? Is the power in the complete control of the consumer? Do you throw in the towel and relinquish all control to PR companies that do your damage control and help you establish a twitter presence? I’m going to make a bold statement directed to all companies when I say, don’t let the consumer win that easily. You can try to cross this huge obstacle, or you can take a new route.

I think it is Jeff Jarvis I’m quoting when I say “customer service is the new marketing”. There is an entire new way of thinking that wins the consumer over, and I think Google’s credo sets the best example: “Don’t be evil”. It sums up the new model perfectly- Don’t trick us, don’t sell us a lemon, and we won’t blog about your company and create horrible word of mouth marketing that spreads quicker than it ever could before. Actually, we might help you out. We might do the advertising for you, so all 1,568 of our Facebook friends and 982 of our followers on twitter can see your brand on our personal profile. The college girl that you treated so poorly at your business could have provided you with a prime piece of real estate for your ad, and at no cost to you. Advertising isn’t dead, it’s changing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that was pretty obvious. So my question to you, reader, is what do you think the future of advertising looks like?