The era of advertising is closing.
TV commercials, brand recognition, slogans and catchy jingles.
Billboards, product placements in film, all are fading out of the picture like the distant memories that they are.
What we have now is INFORMATION.
We live in a Digital Age, one where knowledge has become the most prized commodity in a world filled with MIS-INFORMATION.
Online baloney, wikipedia articles written by 14 year old basement dwellers that pose as the truth,
Juicy fake news articles posted for traffic without regard for fact or fiction,
Blog posts from what appears a beautiful mature woman named Julia who has ‘discovered’ the vegan diet who in reality is a 28 year old Indian male with vindaloo stains on his t-shirt,
The examples go on, ad nauseum.
In essence we now have a landscape of deception.
And in this field of battle the ad campaign that clings to the old ways,
The branding, the “trust us, we’re the _insert industry_ experts” type ad copy,
Those who wave the old flags of traditional advertising will be defeated immediately, sometimes without a single engagement.
Because today, internet savvy consumers resent being sold too and instead seek out unbiased, neutral information.
Or what they think is unbiased.
Side note - nothing on the internet is unbiased.
Search engines and social media have changed the face of marketing.
For better or worse, we now tread in strange, grey waters where discussions on ethics and morality are better left to the ancient Greek philosophers...
We must adapt and evolve to survive.
And how's this for a dichotomy.
To tap into this worldwide collective and start selling,
Which should be the top priority of every single business,
The first thing you need to do is stop selling.
Alan Frye