Cheers/George

As a reader of your blog, I understand your disdain for ad holding companies, but I do think the system will change – simply because it has to. Brands are earning their media more and more, and this is a direct result of the connections that they are making with consumers. Whether or not these connections produce better messaging is irrelevant – the larger point is that consumers crave sociable content, be it through a TV spot, a print ad, an OOH display or a mobile app, and they want to talk about the ideas behind these executions within a more relevant cultural context that actually means something to them and their peer group. Unfortunately for most agencies, this a menacing proposition because it suggests that these ideas must live outside or beyond a campaign construct – after all, conversations are indefinite in their lifecycles.

At the end of the day,’social media’ is a misleading term; social interactions are really about culture, not so much the media channels used to deliver them. Where there is an opportunity for ad agencies to come full circle and revitalize their value is in using media to recreate cultural value systems and develop initiatives with higher purpose… even bring deeper meaning to purchases, much in the same way the David Ogilvies, the Bill Bernbachs and the Hal Rineys of the world once did. As an ad veteran and a creative thinker with a long track record of developing brand experiences, as well as an influencer who uses his own blog to encourage deeper (or more controversial) conversation, I think you can identify with that quite well ;)

Best,

Gunther

I do agree we are in the midst of a mini dotcom downturn due in large part to the state of our sluggish world economy, but I believe social media will keep on expanding in popularity and online advertising will evolve, mature, and grow (although at a slightly more modest growth rate). The genie is out of the bottle. Once you empower consumer voices to be heard, they never want to return to the status quo. That’s why I believe real-time social search analytics tools such as those available on http://www.heardable.com will become more critical to brands (and agencies) in the coming weeks and months. Brand marketers still must attain their growth goals and that means they need to advertise (or connect with) consumers whenever and wherever they choose to congregate–via it in front of the television, in the stands at a sporting event, or on twitter via their iPhones. Brand marketers may need to be a bit more selective on where they spend their marketing dollars, but sales & branding campaigns (offline and online) always follow the consumer. You can bet on it. – Porsche