So predictable. The ad industry turns on the anti-30-second-commercial guy, Joseph Jaffe, because he is repositioning the company Crayon after several key people departed. In case you hadn't heard of it, Crayon was the new marketing agency launched in a new media environment, Second Life, less than a year ago.
If you've read Jaffe's book, listened to his podcasts or read his blog, you'll know that he -an ex agency guy- is Madison Avenue's worst nightmare. Or if I may rephrase it, Old-Madison Avenue's nightmare. Indeed, many agencies have embraced new media and new marketing, but for many, new media is still a slide they add on at the end of their presentation. ("vlogs? short codes? What's that?")
No mater what Crayon does, you have to agree that this "shape shifter" (their term) has been a pace-setter /embarrassment / thorn in the side / to an industry slow to adapt to new new consumer behaviors & motivations. No different from how Richard Branson pushed a lot of buttons and upset a lot of "industry" apple carts, Jaffe is always challenging the way things have been done.
Conversational marketing is something Jaffe's upcoming book will be all about. In fact he did a survey earlier this year on just that topic. Critics of this kind of marketing and advertising are probably disturbed by all of this. They are quick to call his repositioning a "fall from grace."
But there was some vindication last week. AdAge ran a page-one story ("Old-world media starts to feel the pain") on the shift away from traditional media to conversational marketing.
But there's something else going on that has nothing to do with the natural rhythms of booms and busts or the fortunes of Madison Avenue's biggest clients. Simply put, American companies are shifting more and more marketing dollars out of paid media. You see it happening every day as marketersâ€"smart ones, at leastâ€"talk about things such as word-of-mouth and conversational marketing...
Did they just notice? Companies have been talking about these 'things' -and taking their money with them- for many years now. Jaffe was been of the first to chronicle that shift.
link to original postlink to original post