Despite the current dogfight between public relations agencies, digital agencies, direct agencies, ad agencies and the hordes of consultants to decide who will take the lead in social media – clients will decide. And as usual, they’ll decide based on ideas, cost and results.

Social media is after all, media. And media is just the empty space between a brand and its intended audience. The space remains empty until an object is put in place.

In traditional media, the object is a brand centric monologue. However, the best of these monologue type messages spark conversations. Sometimes gigantic conversations like the voluntary word-of-mouth spread of the Wendy’s campaign line “Where’s the beef?” for example.

It’s rarely noted that the best advertising people have always created campaigns as a means to spark conversations. Howard Luck Gossage was a master of this in the 1960’s. He, in fact, hated the typical advertising of his era. He focused on his belief that consumer participation in advertising is critically important. If you can get someone to interact with your ad in some way, it’s more likely they’ll remember what you’re trying to tell them. Famously he said, “Nobody reads advertising. People read what’s interesting to them. Sometimes it’s an ad.” As an example of his work, the image at the top of this post is an interactive ad (yes, interactive) he produced in the early 1960’s for a gas station chain.

Sure social media is different. But then all forms of media are different. A billboard isn’t a TV commercial. The approach and execution are entirely different.

Today we hear parroted lines like ‘it’s all about the conversation.’ We hear that somehow selling is now a dirty, unmentionable word. We hear that “push” does not work – that if your social media campaign is to work at all, it’s all about “pull.”

This is very amateurish, simplistic and in my opinion just plain wrong.

Social media marketing (actually, I hate the term, but it’ll have to do for now) is all about content creation. Creating objects of conversation that fit into the space. Ideally, something people will become engaged with because it’s inherently interesting. More interesting than other shiny objects occupying the same space. And because of that, they’ll pass it around. They’ll talk about it. And the message will spread and grow.

Content creation in this space can’t be brand (ego) centric, because people won’t respond to it, let alone spread the message around. Nobody likes a braggart. Rather, listening in order to find shared passion points that are both relevant to the brand and the audience is a critical first step. It’s akin to identifying a mutual point of interest, as you would in striking up and carrying on any meaningful conversation. Once those points are found, you have the basis for sponsoring conversation through the creation of a social object – an object of conversation – or, an idea.

Somewhat like Proctor and Gamble did together with their ad agencies back in the 40’s and 50’s. Housewives were fascinated with these sparkly new social objects, otherwise known as Soap Operas. They were attracted to them like bees to honey. They talked about the story plots on the phone. They invited their friends over for afternoon tea to watch. And through it P&G sold truck loads of detergent and other household stuff.

What’s old is new again.

That’s why I think the smarter ad agencies will take the lead in the social media space and keep it. Historically, we’ve already been there and always have been. With the better agencies and advertising thinkers, the business has always been about striking up conversations through interesting and relevant ideas. Every intelligent ad person wants the world talking about the idea and sharing it with others, in order to create success for the client and brand. Not to mention, for their agency and their own careers.

In this respect, experience and the creation of ideas that spark conversation are on the side of the smarter ad agencies and people. As long as they learn, adapt and actually practice in the social media space for themselves.

Addendum.

As I was catching up on some blog reading, I came across this from the famous ad man, Dave Trott:

Getting noticed, getting remembered, getting acted on.
The future is to get what we do off the screen and into the language.
So people become our medium.
But that’s always been true.
The technology moved from cave walls, to fresco, to oil paint, to photography, to film, to TV, to digital, to whatever’s next.
But it still has to stand out from what’s around it.
It still has to get into people’s minds and get repeated.
And although technology changes, people don’t.
But you know that.
It’ll always be about people who can out think other people.
What we have to do is stand out from our competition.
That’s what we get paid for.
When the technology changes, it changes for everyone.
New technology won’t make us stand out because everyone else will have it.
So we can’t rely on technology to make us different.
It’s what we do in that technology that has to make us different.
Always has been, always will be.

You can read more about what Dave thinks here.

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Howard Gossage operated a small ad agency out of a former firehouse in San Francisco in the 1960's. He hated advertising, especially billboards. I think he would have hated the so-called differences between traditional and digital shown here as well. He created interactive advertising before it was a term. And millions of people did just that. They interacted with the ideas he came up with on behalf of the brands he promoted.

The best people in advertising have always practiced engagement and interaction with the audience. The internet certainly helps, but it certainly didn't start with it.

There's no such thing as old and new, or, traditional and digital media. It's all in the end, however specialized - media. The thinking is what matters.

           

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