Nope. That’s not a reference to the fact that I haven’t written a post in two weeks. Although I do feel kinda invisible.
I refer to that famous quote because I believe it should be appropriated by traditional ad agencies, who after an 18-month long string of death due to social media obituaries, flew out of the grave on Tuesday when Wieden + Kennedy broke The Old Spice Man social media campaign
There’s been talk about a shift in sentiment that has been evolving over what seems to be just the last few months. A backlash if you will against the thinking surrounding social media and the focus on implementation tactics. A level of frustration with the trepidation, nervousness and overarching reluctance to embrace social media for a fear of “doing it wrong.” I have a thought a lot about this. And it goes a bit beyond embracing a new channel. I think the core issue is deeply rooted—more than we want to admit. Because I see social media’s influence going way beyond a marketing or engagement tool. It’s actually working towards putting the human back into humanity.
Sean Duffy wrote a provocative post recently on TalentZoo.com titled “Advertising Agencies: Kiss Your Creative Teams Goodbye.” He contends that to maximize the potential of digital media, traditional agencies must be willing to restructure the venerated copywriter/art director team. As you might imagine, the eye-popping title of the post led to a flurry of emotionally-charged user comments. Ah, digital. How do we love thee? Let us count the ways.
Reactions fell neatly into Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Let’s examine reactions to the post through the lens of each of these stages. When assembled, the individual responses paint a great picture of the psychological and emotional transition the advertising industry as a whole is currently experiencing. C’mon it’ll be fun, I promise.
I’ve seen a fair amount of tweets and posts recently reminding job applicants and college grads to add their Twitter and LinkedIn profiles to their resume. I obviously think that’s smart advice and none other than Dan Schawbel has the covered the subject thoroughly in his book Me 2.0. But I wonder if that advice even goes far enough these days. In the digital era, if someone asks for your resume, you should be prepared with a two-word reply:
“Google me.”
I’m sure you have heard of the unGeeked Elite event coming up in Milwaukee, WI May 13-15, 2010. You must check it out… why? Because it’s completely focused on providing hands-on guidance to businesses who want to manage their brand and are working to understand the real potential and opportunity to do that with digital and social media. Most importantly, because this event is about you, to its very core. The speakers, the format, the opportunities have all been assembled around what will provide the best value to you. Olivier Blanchard, Sally Hogshead, Scott Stratten, Jason Falls, Chris Brogan, Dan Schawbel, HubSpot, Visible Technologies along with 15 regional experts are at your service, putting the mic in your hand, answering your questions.
Did I mention you should check this out? You really should. #justsayin
Just Sayin' is where we take what's in our head and put it into words. And pixels. While we know it would be far more interesting to have these discussions with us in person over a pot of Translator XD coffee, this is the best that current technology allows for. Patience. We're working on it.
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