Huffington: “People Want To Be Part Of The Story Of Our Time”

Speaking at the AAAA Transformation event in San Francisco today, Arianna Huffington suggested there needs to be a 5Es event rather than a 4As. She told the audience of senior advertising executives that media and marketers need to think about Engagement, Energy, Empathy, Enthusiasm and Enrichment.

The founder of the Huffington Post said that once-passive consumers are moving to self expression. No one complained when people watched 7 hours of bad TV but now observers wonder why everyone is spending so much time updating Facebook or a Wikipedia post. “People want to be part of the story of our time,” Huffington explained. “They want to participate in small and large ways in what’s happening in our world.”

The speed of change however leads to innovators dilemma, she warned. What worked yesterday might not work today. Huffington criticized paywall plans because they ignored people’s self expression and their “new entitlement.” Media owners and marketers need to realize that content is not the center of the universe. You have to look at how people are using and sharing the content they are consuming: “Promiscuity is the new reality, ubiquity is the new exclusivity.”