Aka, can’t we all just get a blog?
It’s not that everyone who talks about the divide between a traditional advertising mindset and the thinking behind social media is wrong, they just have their own interpretations, tending to favor one side over the other.
In other words, everyone’s right.
After seeing a lot of back and forth on this topic, thought I’d come at it from a different angle though. I’m no more right or wrong than anyone else.
I’m also not going to quote thought leaders or ad industry vets either, I just want to make a few observations about where I see all of this going. Having had my feet in both worlds for some time now, I see the argument not as either-or, black or white, take it or leave it.
Maybe we can introduce a little grey.
As such, not every social media person thinks traditional advertising is dead, and conversely, not every traditional shop laughs at social media. Refer to them however you want, for now, I’m using those specific terms to label things here. Maybe it’s here where the notion of labels for the different type of agencies there are needs to disappear too.
“They’re a digital shop. They only do TV. That one only does social stuff.”
Many agencies coming up now do TV, digital, social and all the rest. Your agency should be able to think of great ideas for a brand no matter where they’ll ultimately live.
So what’s up with social?
If you’ve listened and read enough articles on social networks and what brands are doing, you know that “conversation” is thrown around a lot. For now, Imma leave it in. There are two general concepts I’ve been using to explain to agencies and clients lately about the bigger purpose for social networks:
First, social media is the thing that can help facilitate and integrate the rest of a brand’s overall marketing efforts, (TV, print, radio, OOH, point of sale, and so on). Call it the glue that ties it all together if you want.
Second, brands that are afraid to get into the space think consumers will take over, control and own their brand, so they respond in typical PR mode trying to spin everything. This is where I usually tell them to relax.
Consumers don’t control or own everything about your brand, just how they experience it and let the world know about it.
I think you do need to break it down that specifically because the problem I see is that too many general statements are made that while sounding great, miss out on key differences which help maintain this traditional vs. social rift.
That’s where the concept of owning needs to be rethought. If consumers are under the illusion they’re in complete charge, than brands need an even bigger wake up call because never owned how people reacted to their product or service.
They only thought they did.
Advertising is all that a brand needs.
As for traditional agencies, many social media people don’t understand that agencies do something that no other part of the machine can do: Create the Big Idea.
It’s the overall emotion around a brand that shapes how they want you feel about it. (I don’t mean branding either. Another term bastardized for too long now. That’s another post however.)
The Big Idea though is the notion that there are consumer insights which can be culled from focus groups or 140-page PowerPoint decks full of endless psychographics, which then lead planners and creatives to find the one truth that’s executed in a way that will resonate with consumers. (Funny spot, emotional spot, etc., whatever.)
This one truth will be the basis for the taglines and look of the campaign in whatever media channel we happen to roll it out. This is has always been TV first and everything else supporting that second, such as print, radio, outdoor and so on.
If the agency nails it, that one truth creates a connection for the consumer with the brand. (They hope.) Sometimes, the truth in question isn’t really about an overall emotional tone for the brand, but something much simpler:
“Studies show consumers didn’t know you could save X-amount by doing it yourself online. We ran new ads telling them about this discount and sales increased.”
In this case, there’s no “deep” emotion involved except exploiting what was in the data and appealing to the desire people have to save money. The Big Idea can also be this grand re-imagining as you saw with the Pepsi logo, or it can be smaller and focused on short term goals for the brand, like, selling during a particular promotional window. (See the recent Glidden post for a look at how this plays out.)
Mostly though, it’s the general approach creatives take when facing any assignment, large or small: What’s the one truth that we can show that resonates with someone.
Here-in lies the problem as both sides butt heads though.
Traditional agency mindset: Only The Big Idea is the only thing that matters in the process. As such, we need to drive it home everywhere. Pepsi on Twitter? Great, but the My Generation spot during the
Social media mindset: We’ll build or unite a community online and connect people for real, giving them a virtual experience that TV can’t possibly offer, because consumers want value and a great user experience, not emotional TV spots.
Okay, you two, stop fighting and go to your rooms because it can and should all work together. For the brand’s sake, both sides need to recognize that the other isn’t going away.
There’s no one single piece of the marketing puzzle that will make or break a brand in the long run. That doesn’t mean you can only do one one thing and expect success though. If you only ran TV by itself with no website or point of sale display to support it, you’re in trouble. Likewise, great website and “branded entertainment” clip on YouTube, but the stores all ran out of your product? Dead.
To that point, Domino’s and Oprah’s KFC fiascos seemed to me to be more of an example where the brand failed and not the marketing.
(The brands in both cases were strong enough to overcome those events by using other media channels along with basic PR damage control techniques. In the case of Domino’s, they responded by using the same site (YouTube) that had originally blindsided them. Ironically, KFC used PR to bail them out from what was essentially a PR miscue from the start: Underestimating the audience Oprah brings to the table.)
Lemmee say it again: It. All. Has. To. Work. Together. Every single aspect of a brand’s marketing efforts, from web to shipping to the customers’ in-store experience to billboards to...
Before I open another can of worms regarding the silo mindset that exists in the internal channels of brands, I should make a final point: I don’t see the advertising agency problem being one of traditional mass media going away soon.
What I see as a bigger issue is the mindset that says only an ad agency can provide the big thinking a brand needs, not some small shop or social media consultant.
Agencies are big on saying that a great idea can come from anywhere—unless someone else came up with it. Clients may buy execution, but they should be also be able to have a wider pool from which to get ideas too. (Even social media freaks like me.)
Why? Because we all know different little cool things about brands, and we all have different specialties. Seems a waste not to pool all of that, no?
Now, you kids come out of your rooms and go outside and play. And leave the muskets inside.
(image via.)
8 comments:
Great post! I just was saying the same thing at a meeting the other day. The medium is changing. Not the message. It's all still branding. Still creative/big ideas. Still creating an emotional connection with consumers. Well done, Bill! While the programmers think they are running the world now, creativity will survive and thrive.
Damn, Bill....I'm tired just from reading that. Sit down and have an Allagash White, you've earned it.
Honestly, I don't get all the apprehension about social media. There has always been social media, remember that funny thing called word of mouth? What's more social than that? And twitter and facebook and blogs really aren't anything different....they're just bigger and louder and faster. It's easier to listen and join in on, too.
Conversations about brands (I hate that phrase) used to tend to be one way. Either brands talked to consumers, or consumers talked to each other, but brands seldom listened. The true power of social media is it makes it easier for that conversation to be two way. Still, brands should listen a lot more than they talk. You're right, it shouldn't be one-or-the-other, and I think traditional advertising is still what brands should use when they really want to say something, and use social media to let their customers talk back, and to each other.
dude,
in the future, could you please keep these perspectives to 140 characters or less?
Characters? I thought it was paragraphs.
good work thanks
Traditional marketing is just as important as new marketing. Social media and real time search keep you in touch with the rest of the world and give you insights on how you are perceived. Besides traditional marketing, every business should engage in social media.
Monika Lorincz
surchur.com
social media agency its a traditional marketing that was engaged to social media in business.....
For double serious. Well said. I use the Obama campaign as an example a ton when talking about this sort of thing (shocking, I know). The "big idea" was hope. But that didn't mean that every speech, every ad, every piece of communication was meant to directly support the hope position. Otherwise, we'd all have a serious case of tired head. So you gotta have both, good insight and the ability to act less like an unthinking money-hungry corporation and more like a human being. And not a dickish one like me. :)
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