Comments on: Is your marketing a monoculture?

By: social media words of wisdom « branding=m3

social media words of wisdom « branding=m3 — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:06:27 +0000

[...] 2010, 12:06 pm Filed under: social media | Tags: adpulp, hitch, social media from david wiggs of hitch, an ad agency search consultant, comes this pearl of wisdom (via adpulp) concerning the use of [...]

By: Glimmers of a social media backlash? « Ask Spike

Glimmers of a social media backlash? « Ask Spike — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:55:17 +0000

[...] pondering these days. We have to bridge the gap between online and offline. Because we’re all in danger in buying into the pseudo-world of an exclusively online [...]

By: Andy A

Andy A — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:04:14 +0000

I want to cut out this page and stick it on my wall. Or maybe just RT it Great points David, and well put.

I think a lot of us in the communications world are attracted to the newest and shiniest. And I think if you're any good, you do need to dissect things to figure out what makes them tick in order to find out what makes them worth looking at as potentially useful. That last part is pretty important: you have to remember WHY you're using any medium—its not just to be on TV, to do a print ad, to have a Twitter acct.

Now more than ever, you can weave some very interesting, creative, sticky campaigns by letting each channel do what its naturally best suited for—and your audience can tell you that. Your audience may have moved away from print as a favorite medium, and uses online more for the purpose print once served, but their occasional print interaction may hold more power for them now; TV may have changed for them, but they still like to be wowed and engaged on a big screen without a keyboard on it; and they've probably always ALWAYS shared what they liked, what was cool, what sucked, what was moronic…and now that method happens to have a name (and more horsepower) attached to it: social “media.” So give them something to talk about, something really good, and they can explode it for you.

All of is this is to say that media channels—all of them—are calling out the best and brightest strategies right now. Strategy—the harnessing of which media to use and how, for what effect—is the real rock star of our era.

By: Hitch

Hitch — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:24:23 +0000

Well said, Nathan. Thanks for sharing your point of view.

By: nathancarnes

nathancarnes — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:56:09 +0000

It's not uncommon for clients to come to us with the idea that a newer, shinier, bigger/faster/stronger website will help turn their fortunes around. And I'm hearing the same story from social media folks.

A great web presence, or a great social media presence (or a great traditional media presence, let's be honest) is a useful way to get your company's story out to lots of people. But if you don't have a compelling story to tell people once you have their attention, it's not going to matter. If you don't have your story straight, it doesn't matter how many people are fans on Facebook, or read your print ad.

Chasing madly after each new advertising media without a fundamentally sound brand strategy is a great way to spend a lot of money, fast, with no return on investment. (And I say that as a guy that makes websites.)