The Next Engine: Beyond Campaign Thinking

If you’re reading this blog it’s probably safe to assume you’re in the camp that thinks experiencing traditional advertising is not unlike being savaged by a dead sheep. OK, you might not put it in those exact terms but hopefully you get my drift.

So if campaigns and promotions and incentives and sweepstakes and banner ads and dancing monkeys aren’t the answer, what is? Well these five things will do for a start:

1) Design great products and services that meet and beat the competition across all the metrics you can measure, but one above all others.

2) Make sure the ways and the places in which consumers interact with your company, product or service are the best they can possibly be.

3) Use the web to reach people with content that engages, entertains, informs and delivers real utility. That makes people’s lives better. Or easier. Or more fun. Remember the 30 second spot is designed to keep media companies in business, not your brand.

4) Watch, listen and learn from your customers. Innovate. Appreciate that what they think is 10 times more valuable than what you think. Champion social media analysis, ethnographic research, usability testing.

5) Don’t think in terms of campaigns. Or success or failure. You’re in it for the long haul. Test, learn, refine, test, learn refine.

Table stakes.

Tags: innovation, marketing, Social Media, strategy