novick : experience

The end of PR and Marketing?

This came from Cincom, an aggregator I subscribe to. The blogger they point to argues that the best way to stand out in an environment that's flooded with noise is to make sure that your [more] noise is placed everywhere [read: social web]. 

While I agree that the PR + Marketing trades are ailing, I am confident that Msr. Kayser's approach is misguided. Just 'cause everyone else is doing it -- the lemming defense -- is a pretty weak strategy. See:

http://www.writingriffs.com/2009/02/10/the-end-of-marketing-and-pr/

It’s not PR.
It’s not marketing.
It’s not the end of PR and marketing.
It’s the evolution of business communications.
It’s a revolution in business communications.

Use the new media applications and capabilities to share great ideas, helpful information and insights to connect with and help your customers. Jump in. Test them. Experiment. Find which new media capabilities might be right for you and your business.

They  work … but only if you think anew, act anew, and disregard the stultifying and stiflingly destructive “Us Against Them” siloed business mentality.

Getting to "You"

You're dying to manipulate any conversation around to everyone's favorite topic: YOU! Click through to Presidential Elections, a well tailored and tight clip from a new marketing toolkit. The AICP Show at MOMA is leveraging artists' networks to fuel a viral campaign designed to build awareness. Would that all commercials were this much fun.

Congratulations on being a past inductee to the AICP Show’s collection at The Museum of Modern Art, an achievement you should be extremely proud of.

Unlike your job, golf swing or child, this is an accomplishment you can bring up during any conversation. Because being part of the permanent collection isn’t just a testament to your work being relevant in ad land, but culture as a whole.

Making every conversation a conversation about you.

It would be great to use a similar theme for a corporate campaign, either internal or external.

Amy Corr at MediaPost has more.

What? Me Rant?

Today’s NYTimes has an article discussing the changing landscape of measurement on the web. It seems that the portals’ lunch is being eaten by ad networks. The solution? The old school enterprises [think: Yahoo, AOL] are quelling the upstart competition via the murders and acquisition strategy. See Shift in the Way Advertisers Seek Clicks

The change exists at the nexus of a few other trends:

1] Measurement as it applies to advertising is over-rated. It may be able to track impressions, clicks and surf-paths but – and my apologies to my colleagues in SEO, research and analytics – BFD. Numbers are just a tool that can be manipulated and interpreted 365 ways ‘til Christmas. They’re not a way of life, as the bean counters would have us believe. At the end of the day decisions are still made at the gut level; and sometimes regardless of what the data shows. I had the opportunity of hearing Kevin Clancy talk about his new book, Your Gut is Still Not Smarter Than your Head, which he describes as the antidote to Gladwell's Blink. You decide.

2] Paid advertising on the web [ie: media buy] is going the way of the Letraset sheet. It will retain a large niche market [banners, ad words and the like] but the medium is different from TV and print, whence the media placement model is based. Learnings should be taken more from the telephone and its ad-free model. Marketing communications shops will still be in demand with the shift from the “agency” model to a greater reliance on creative, viral and PR-style placement; influencing, letting the grass-roots decide, rather than the [I can’t believe it’s still in vogue] hit ‘em over the head new and improved informercial life-styled pap that clogs the ether regardless of the channel. [This bit triggered by what Larry Weber is trying to do with his new enterprise, Digital Influence Group].

3] Lastly [and arguably this contradicts the points above], is the mutual desire of marketers and creatives to have a pay for performance model. Dollars are getting squeezed all around. Agencies will be putting a stake in the ground, putting their bottom line where their creative is and making an investment in their clients. Partnering. See Greg Wilson’s post at Time Sheets. Registering as a mediapost subscriber may be required.