I've been reading Joseph Jaffe's Life After the 30-Second Spot. I signed up to be part of his UNM2PNM (Using New Marketing to Promote New Marketing) program to promote the book.
I started reading it one evening before bed and that was a mistake. Reading the first chapter was like being back home in Texas, sitting in a Southern Baptist church and listening to my favourite gospel preacher. It was all I could do not to stand up and holler "Amen, Brother Jaffe! TESTIFY!" repeatedly throughout the evening. It got me all riled up, and I vowed to run out and buy copies for all old school marketers that I know.
Why? Because Jaffe knows the world is changing (has changed); he is helping to drive the change, and I want my colleagues to *get it* (feel it, KNOW it) in their bones so our organization isn't left behind (rapture reference intentional).
Now, Jaffe's rhetoric is intentionally inflamatory and I love it!
Why would you even want to reach a mass audience at a time when there are truthfully very few remaining mass products?
Jaffe pokes at not only the 30-Second TV spot and the futility of old media, but also at the staidness of advertising agencies and their penchant for clinging to a formula that just doesn't work anymore. He hails the consumer as being informed, in control and more and more willing to exercise that control; the consumer is "armed with a whole array of weapons of the destruction of mass".
But Jaffe isn't just about the rhetoric. He presents four key forces that converged to empower the consumer and four key marketing fundamentals that need to be rethought in order to move forward.
Jaffe's Four Horsemen of the Old Marketing Apocalypse (this is actually *my* analogy .. Jaffe uses "Perfect Storm", but since we started with the preacher analogy, I thought I'd stick with it ...)
- Broadband. Broadband means an "always on" connection, not just a big pipe. And "always on" means a reduction (or even elimination) of the lag between exposure and action.
- Wireless. Consumers are connected *everywhere*.
- Search. Facilitates empowerment by providing immediate access to information.
- Networks. Watercooler effect to the nth degree. "Community is the only real economy of scale in today's brave new world".
As a result, the consumer is empowered like never before. What do we need to do to reach this empowered consumer? Re:Think.
- Re:Think the Changing Consumer. According to Jaffe, today's consumer is smart, connected, empowered, time pressed, demanding, loyalless, vengeful and ahead of the curve. And the consumer is taking control. If you're not paying attending to CGM as a marketer, you'd better get out of the game.
- Re:Think Branding. "We use product, we buy brands, but we live experiences." What experience does your brand offer? And how are you measuring success?
- Re:Think Advertising. Advertising used to inform, to persuade, to remind. NOW, advertising need to empower, to demonstrate, to involve. Instead of ROI, measure RUE: relevance, utility and entertainment.
- Re:Think the Advertising Agency. The agency of the future will be known for one of two competencies: ideas (generation) or execution (integration). Generators will be judged on their ability to translated their ideas into communications and programs that build the business. Integrators will facilitate the actualization of these ideas. Beyond media buyers, they will recommend specific executions that bring the communication to life.
Whew. And that's just the first half! The second half is Section III: 10 Approaches that are Transforming the Marketing and Advertising Games. Jaffe covers topics like gaming, experiential marketing, consumer-generated content and branded entertainment. He gives his thoughts on each of 10 topics and then has a guest columnist weigh in the topic like Charles Porter, Chairman Crispin Porter + Bogusky who discusses communal/viral marketing. Am looking forward to the second half!
Resources:
- Jaffe Juice (Jaffe's blog)
- Life After the 30-Second Spot (website)
- Across the Sound (Jaffe's podcast with Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion)
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