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Messages Affronted By Conversations …

January 28, 2005 in Main Page | No comments

Fun and to-the-point post by Hugh Macleod, riffing on a post at Buzz Machine.
 
Advertisers: You have lost control of your message. Get over it.

: VW [Volkswagon] is going berserk over the parody ad that showed a terrorist blowing himself up inside a small but tough sedan. The company is demanding apologies and threatening to sue.

Sorry, guys. That VW has already left the barn.

You are no longer in control of your message, advertisers. You can fight it or you can embrace it.

Learn the lesson from the music industry. They fought. They lost. Big media is trying to learn that lesson now. TV is trying to learn that lesson. Your turn, advertisers.

If you embrace this, I’ll just bet you will find something amazing happen: You will find that your customers are better at marketing your products than you are.

Oh, I know your fear: ‘But what these people say will be off message!’ Well, then, maybe your message is off.

Advertisers want to control the conversation; that is human nature. Whether you’re selling a $5 billion brand or a corner taco stand, you’d rather have folk talking about what you want, not what they want.

My advice has been the same for a while: “Control the conversation by improving the conversation.”

Then Hugh underscores the point with the money-power-sex thing below.  Actually, he leads with this, and then arrives at his point re: smarter conversations. 
 
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