They're all in the ad business now
When the demand side of a voluntary exchange starts supplying itself, the traditional suppliers are going to get scared. To wit, all of the exploding business models around us (newspapers, music, movies, and TV just for starters).
The same fear is being felt by companies when it comes to their ads. This is, of course, because it’s so cheap and easy for people to bring to life their own creations - people who are connected to the most powerful distribution network in history.
These companies usually aren’t connected to that network, though they think they are.
("But we do e-mail marketing...that’s the internet! And we have a website, so we must be connected!” Etc.). They’re often not open to outside innovation or doing things which don’t have a very clear price tag - and matching promise of return on investment. (If I had a dollar for every time I’d been asked, “What’s the ROI of a blog?” by clueless big biz types who think they’ve got it all figured out, I wouldn’t have to charge them for telling them they’re clueless. The concept of what is measurable and what isn’t is one it would have taken days to get through.)
What is becoming ever more clear is that many of these companies are stuck in the mindset that ads are something of value which they provide to ‘consumers’. It is precisely this mindset which, when the people outside their companies started producing their own creations (images, videos, music), made the suits think: “A-ha! We should get these people to put their talent and enthusiasm to work by baiting them with prizes to create ads for our stuff! Because people just LOVE ads for our stuff!”
Which is total crap.
But the attitude is revealing - and disturbing. How much money do you spend with companies that think ads are something of major value to you? Apart from any other issues which may decide who gets your custom (Do they treat their employees like dirt? Do they seem to think you’re lucky to have them? Do their employees seem to know their stuff?), the issue of whether a company believes they’re as much in the ad business as they are in the business of whatever you’re paying them for may rank pretty highly.
In: Blogging • Customer Service • Employee Service • Marketing • E-mail Marketing • Podcasting • Promotions • Television •