An Advertising Revolution?

Everyone wants to sell something to someone if not everyone.  Selling is a relational process. Advertising is a marketing process. The disconnect between advertising and selling is relational. Relations begin with communications. Communications are driven by conversations between people, one to one to millions.

When I see ads on web sites I, like 99% of the market, see no relationship to the sites conversational content, if there is such content. And marketers wonder why they have such a low click through rate?  How’s that working for you?

Yet brands continue to spend billions of dollars a year (close to $400 billion this year) trying to catch peoples attention with ads that have no context to our conversations. The marketing industry, while shifting to the internet, has not shifted their thinking rather they are applying old methods to new technology. It simply won’t and isn’t working!

How Can Advertisers Create Relations?

Marketers think slick ads and unique technology creates relations. They’re wrong. Relations are formed by an affinity to “content”, the context of  conversations. The problem is that marketers simply do not know how to create “relational content” that has context to their audience.  So you ask “what is relational content?”. Good question.

Relational content is communications which creates value for the receivers.  That is why we call it “conversational currency“.  OK, so how can marketers create conversational currency that “pulls their market to them” and enables a transaction?

A Revolutionary “Mesh”?

Joe Marchese writes in an article titled “Why Advertise At All? The form advertising takes to maintain relevance in media’s latest evolution, has yet to be totally unlocked. And it may be that advertising makes up a smaller share of the media mix or (shockingly) a larger share, given that advertising’s new role will be to create conversations, which can drive product insights, which can lead to maintaining a leadership position in product innovation.

It may be that the lines separating advertising, research and other marketing functions will simply blur, and elements of each be present in all brand communications

It is not a blur rather it is a revolutionary convergence or methods and means. The advertising industry needs a revolution not an evolution. As economic pressures continue advertisers need to create innovative ways to create relations that enhance transactions. To get something you never had you have to do something you never did.  So what have you never done?

What if you simply aligned your message with specific audiences that have an affinity to your offering. Once aligned why not simply create a conversation of “giving”. How? In stead of spending billions on ads that don’t work, “give” the ad money to the audience and tell them you’ve stopped wasting money on advertising.  If you transferred the ad money to the audience using a new medium do you think they would spend it? Who doesn’t spend found, or free, money?

The money your now spending on ads is wasteful and ultimately your customers pays for the waste. Do you think your market would waste money you gave them? Do you think your market would tell their market that you gave them money?  Think again.

I repeat “To get something you never had you have to do something you never did”. So you don’t think it will work? You’ll never know until you do it. By the way, there is a medium which can enable you to do it. Stay tuned and we’ll tell you.

What say you?

About Jay: Jay Deragon’s professional career includes providing strategic management consulting services to Fortune 500 companies as well as local small businesses. He has consulted with numerous industries spanning over 25 years of professional experience globally. His current professional endeavors are all centric to the disruptive nature of the social web. He writes at Relationship Economy and provides social media strategic services to businesses large and small. Jay Deragon is an avid student of the emerging landscape of all things social and the subsequent impact on business dynamics. Since 2004 Mr. Deragon has been actively studying, sharing and learning how business as unusual is changing business methods, models and relationships. Life is a journey and the experiences along the way provides learning that furthers the experiences if we know how and what to learn. for more info go here http://www.relationship-economy.com/?page_id=2

Tagged as: advertising revolution, blog marketing, brand marketing, business change, business disruption, business relations, conversational marketing, innovation economy, jay deragon, Relationship Economy, revolutionary mesh, social capital, social commerce, Social Media