I hope our readers will forgive this brief episode of trumpet-blowing but I have come across this splendid article in the Economist about the future of advertising:

The advertising industry is passing through one of the most disorienting periods in its history. This is due to a combination of long-term changes, such as the growing diversity of media, and the arrival of new technologies, notably the internet. Consumers have become better informed than ever before, with the result that some of the traditional methods of advertising and marketing simply no longer work.

When a journal as serious and august as the Economist starts saying things like this, then change is assuredly afoot.

But change to what? Without wishing to appear dismissive, it seems that many marketers are floundering around looking for a way out of the mess:

During the slump, some companies tried different forms of advertising and liked the response they got. “There's lots of ways to skin a cat today,” says Scott Goodson, founder of StrawberryFrog, an agency based in Amsterdam that specialises in international campaigns. While his firm still uses traditional media, such as TV and print, it is often in conjunction with other techniques, such as “viral” marketing. This means trying to spread the message by word of mouth—still considered the most-powerful form of advertising. Sometimes that involves using the internet for e-mail messages containing jokes, film clips and games, which recipients are encouraged to pass along to friends.

They are almost there but not quite. The term I believe they are groping for is 'enagement'. What they have realised is that markets are, in essence, conversations. Right. But they are trying to spark conversations with things like 'viral' e-mail. Wrong.

What their clients need to do is to start 'talking' to their customers and letting their customers talk to them. This is the ethic on which the Big Blog Company was founded and it is highly gratifying to discover that reputable independent sources are corroborating our instincts.

It seems everyone in advertising is now beginning to realise what we realised a good while ago: that the days of 'bash-you-over-the-head-until-you-submit' are dead or dying.

But, of course, a Century of ingrained methodology dies hard and slowly. Recognising the problem is one thing but finding the solution is something else. Well, we think blogs are the solution that these marketers are desperate to find and find us they will.

Don't worry, chaps, we are coming to your rescue.

Back to Big Blog Company