These comments are being posted simultaneously on The Drift and on the iMedia Connection blog in advance of my keynote at next month's iMedia Agency Summit in Austin, Texas. This is the second of three posts on this topic.
Yesterday I laid out two of the "Dead Internet Ideas" that will continue to hold our industry back if we don't abandon them. Today and tomorrow, a few more:
Dead Idea #3: Agency as Velvet Rope. This one is sure to raise some hackles. That the agency should - or even can - serve as the principle arbiter of online marketing ideas for the brand is - you got it - a dead idea. Setting aside for a moment how resource-starved and margin-challenged today's digital shop is, no agency could be asked to keep up with the tsunami of behavioral, social and technological opportunities that are out there. Marketers already realize that innovative friction happens where consumers meet content and social experiences online, and it doesn't happen on a campaign-based calendar. Agencies need a new model; they need to be high-speed routers, connectors of ideas and opportunities. Fast, nimble, freed of the trappings of judge and jury.
Dead Idea #4: Church and State. So much of our legacy is rooted in the world of traditional media, and one big ol' dead idea has ridden along on that legacy: the so-called separation of church and state. It may help ASME sleep better at night to think that so-called 'ads' will live neatly in little ad ghettoes at the margins of pages. Quaint. Both online and offline, the consumer lives in a world where marketing and content are inextricably woven together. Turns out they're pretty sophisticated and can pull things apart pretty well for themselves. Our job is to creatively blend the two. Building little fences? Dead idea.
Think I'm dead wrong? Have a few dead ideas of your own to contribute. Post them here and then watch this space tomorrow for the final installment of this series of posts....but certainly not the last word.
