Once again, Hugh at GapingVoid says what we've all been thinking (or at least what *I've* been thinking but never wanted to say in those TERRIBLE marketing meetings) ...
It's OK to have a commercial agenda on a blog. It's OK if you want your readers to hire your consulting service, buy your company's widget, recommend your band's new album to their friends, or in this case, splash out for some movie tickets. Whatever.
But if you over-strategize, you soon stop treating your readers like human beings, and start treating them like "consumers", there to be manipulated like labratory animals.
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One thing you notice when you start attending the blog conferences and hanging around the more well-known and respected bloggers on the planet: None of them seem to take it very seriously. They just get on with it. If what they do works for them, it's because it all comes naturally.
But maybe Big Media doesn't want it to all come naturally- maybe they want it to all come artificially. Maybe that's why it's so utterly dominated by celebrities, advertising and wannabes.
Maybe Big Media is all about being fake and getting away with it.
EXACTLY! I'm all for research and media planning, but I think we need to get past the perceived "cool-factor" of being in advertising and realise that, you know what, most people just want to live their lives. And if we can talk to them, in a genuine, appropriate, non-pandering way -- they will likely appreciate that and be interested in developing a relationship with us.
What if an oil & gas company actually said, "You know what, it *is* shitty that gas prices are so high. But you know what -- finding the oil to make the gas is really expensive. And there isn't that much left of that oil, so it gets harder and more expensive each time. But, there are other ways that you can save some money with us and, actually, there are some other ways you can cut down on your gas consumption. Here they are. Now, why don't you contribute your own!"
And then, what if that gas company, instead of spending their marketing budget with their Big Agency (who creates terrible creative that they then put up at the gas stations and does nothing what-so-ever to build a brand that people can fall in love with), and used it to fund, say, a car-pooling website. Or something that actualised its brand promise rather than trying to fake it by offering Skittles at a low price in the convenience store?
It's no longer about mass marketing. WHEN will old-school marketers get that? And when will they realise that the game is changed? Not just the technology game. And not even the social network game -- where our customers have more power than we do (if they only figure out how to use it). But the nature of our relationship with our customers has changed. And the sooner we figure that out, the sooner our relationships will improve.
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