Realized after not updating my blog for over a year that I’m probably not going to write anything interesting any time soon. I’ve found Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ a better spend of my time. Maybe I’ll come back. Maybe not. Or maybe one day I’ll get around to redesigning everything. One day…
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Mark down April 2010 as the month when consumers took control of advertising. That’s when Twitter rolled out Promoted Tweets—its real-time, open conversational ad platform advertising model, where the content itself is the ad and where user engagement and resonance determine an ad’s life cycle and exposure.
Historically, the advertising paradigm has relied on advertisers paying for and serving up messaging to consumers who were then forced to see the ads by virtue of their consuming media. Consumers could certainly skim over a magazine ad, take a snack break during TV commercials, or be blinded to online banners; however, if advertisers paid for an ad flight it ran whether or not consumers cared about the message.
Not so with Promoted Tweets. Imagine focus group and Millward-Brown testing in real time. Consumers who see advertising within Twitter essentially “vote” with their actions in real time to determine message resonance and whether an ad gets to live or die.
Twitter’s model works like this: A normal Tweet gets posted to a Twitter account and then gets designated and “promoted” to the top of Twitter search results when someone searches for a specific topic or keyword—similar to paid search keyword advertising. But, unlike paid search, if consumers don’t engage with the ad (i.e. sharing, re-tweeting, clicking on link, following, etc.) it will be deemed unworthy and will disappear from the ad stream. If advertisers don’t create compelling messaging that resonates and forces some level of interest and engagement the ad will be pushed out of the spotlight. It’s no longer about repetition or scale, it’s about consumers giving a thumbs up or thumbs down. Get the message and creative right the first time or suffer the consequences.
In short, advertising has become a popularity contest where resonance, ideas, and creative make the difference. Currently, this paradigm only exists within Twitter, but the ramifications are huge—this model could easily applied to paid search, online banner advertising, and even iTV advertising. It’s not a matter of whether it will happen; it’s a matter of when.
Will you be ready?
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Photo Credit: Cynthia Connolly
Growing up in the 1980s as a young teen searching for identity and community, I found myself drawn to the world of American hardcore punk rock. I had been obsessed with iconic rock bands of the late-70s as a pre-teen, but as I was finishing off my junior high school years I began to long for more. For something that not only spoke to my musical tastes but also allowed me to have a direct and intimate relationship with the process of creation and sharing. To be part of a scene that blurred the lines between bands and fans. To connect.
I found this home in punk rock.
Fast-forward almost 30 years and I find amazing parallels between the worlds of ’80s hardcore and what’s become contemporary social media. The similarities are uncanny.
I’m sure I’m leaving some ideas out but essentially Social Media involves Community, Transparency, Viral Ideas, Long Distance Connections, Leveling the Playing Field, Conversation, Challenging the Status Quo, Innovating, Consumers Owning the Brand, Brands Ceding Control, Young Entrepreneurs, and Passion Over Profit.
American hardcore wasn’t much different.
Sure, no one thought about the scene in those terms. But the blooming of thousands of DIY bands, fanzines, promoters, and stores, the breaking down of barriers between acts and fans at live shows, the idea that anyone could be a creator, the no-strings-attached sharing between bands and kids in different cities, the cramming of sound and information into very short songs, the distrust of corporate entertainment and culture, and the organizing of political, social, and charity efforts were akin to today’s individual and community empowerment via social media’s ability to allow for the creation of an infinite number of specialty, niche platforms, to the open and free sharing of information and ideas via social networking, to the power transfer from brands to people, to the short messages on Twitter, to the flattening of organizations, and to the tangible political, philanthropic, and bottom-up-driven cultural memes and movements sprung from people using social media. Hell, they even have noise in common.
There are differences. No one gets their head kicked in playing in social media. And no one got insanely rich off of hardcore. But I think it’s safe to draw a link between the two more than any other culture/lifestyle/music movements the past few decades.
I guess the kids really did have their say.
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