From June 12th
It's almost ten years since the Cluetrain Manifesto declared that "markets are conversations". And the idea that interactive technology would help turn marketing from monologue into dialogue was a cliche even then. And yet, for most of the alleged interactive revolution, not much changed. The idea of dialogue was mostly rhetorical; for all the talking of being interactive, consumer-centric and responsive most communications were still top-down, one-way, broadcast. The digital marketing revolution apparently consisted of lots of different ways to distribute the same monolithic, unresponsive stuff. From microsites and mailing lists to ambient and banners, all the effort and imagination of the the marketing innovators seemed devoted to discovering new ways to spam people with the same old rubbish. The interactivity and dialogue being offered was limited to clicking on some things and opting in or out of some other things. What changed everything was the arrival of millions of regular folk with their own voice and their own channels for talking. They didn't need brands to grant them a place for conversation (which would have been an odd idea anyway, like demanding you go to a shop to have a chat ) they found their own places to talk, on blogs, on social networks, all over the place. And the digital discussion of brands, products and services acquired a new centre of gravity; away from the corporate marketingweb and into the world of regular conversation.
And that's the world we're living in now, a world where brand-owners are increasingly left out of the conversation about their own brands. We thought we were going to host the party, we're ending up trying to gatecrash theirs. Which means we've finally arrived in an age of genuine dialogue. If brand owners want to get involved in the discusion of their brands they'll have to do it in a personal, direct, individual way. Genuinely one-to-one, no longer one-to-many. No agencies, consultancies, intermediaries, proxies or spokespeople. My favourite example is at icanhaz.com/timbuk2 - it's a comment from a CEO on the blog of one of his satisfied customers. That's real conversation. A CEO spending ten minutes a day talking directly to her customers via their blogs outweighs all kinds of marketing money; everyone in that company doing the same thing becomes a fantastic resource. The Prime Minister's office has direct conversations with people via twitter.com/DowningStreet, so does NASA's Mars Lander at twitter.com/MarsPhoenix; surely the average FMCG marketer could make an effort too. All you'd need would be a little fluency with a few digital tools, an ability to talk honestly, interestingly and without jargon, and a company that's willing to trust you to talk on it's behalf. That can't be that rare can it?
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