The proliferation of conferences in the online space is staggering. I’ve found several that are well-run and consistently provide valuable content, like Search Engine Strategies, Search Insider Summit:, SMX:, Searchonomics: and Webmasterworld PubCon.
I recently attended Future of Online Advertising, a nicely presented new media economy conference, and would say that it is worth attending for a forward thinking view on the industry. Top notch speakers and good sessions.
It was in a great venue too, New York’s Gotham Hall, a former bank built in the colossal Roman style, a temple to the old financial economy. The contrast between old and new was highlighted by a series of aphorisms carved into the granite walls circling the three-story-tall hall:
“Waste neither time nor money but use both for your own and your neighbor’s good.”
“There is no gain so sure as that which results from economizing what you have.”
“It is what we save rather than what we earn that ensures a competency for the future.”
These paeans to frugality sound quaint in an era where the average U.S. household carries $9300 in credit card debt. However, they also seemed strangely appropriate given that many of the speakers directly or indirectly addressed the key resource in the new economy: consumer attention.
The Economy of Attention
Marketers often behave as if they are in sole control of consumer attention, powering print and television via their ad spending, pushing messages to captive audiences. Unfortunately, this tendency has frequently been transferred to the online space unchallenged.
In that old economy, consumers didn’t have easy means to speak back or turn the shouting match into a conversation. Clearly they have always selectively doled out their proactive interactions with ideas, brands, products or media. The Internet and especially Web 2.0 tools enable nearly frictionless response. In fact, the ease with which consumers can express themselves online prompts other consumers to respond in kind. Suddenly, the voice of the consumer is amplified, sometimes reaching volumes unmatched by even the biggest advertising budgets.
Competition for consumer attention is at an all-time high, and it shows no signs of stopping. In an age where consumers can be more selective able what advertising they view, and where they use their extra time and energy to create unique conversations, they demand more careful attention from marketers. This reversal of value flow in the new economy has huge implications for marketers and publishers.
Here are a few recommendations for marketers distilled from the Future of Online Advertising conference speakers:
Stop shouting and listen: do you really understand what consumers want?
Serving existing ads in new places might work better than it does in the old places, but that’s only because of novelty. In the long run, marketers will better engage consumers by creating ads tuned to specific conversations, which necessitates analysis and understanding of those conversations.
Your brand, their terms
Consumer 2.0 wants to “license” your brand on their terms, not simply buy your products. There are exactly two reasons a consumer is going to blog about or review your product: it’s extremely cool or annoyingly bad. If it’s cool, the consumer will endorse it and by doing so “represent” it—or maybe actually let it represent him/her—in a blog or social site profile. Mediocre products get no visibility at all, only the remarkably good or bad get play. Marketers will expend energy trying to drown out negative reactions. If marketers are attentive, active participants in online conversations, they won’t make bad products in the first place.
Let go, let flow
Relax and be playful. You can’t control your brand the way you could 20 or even 10 years ago. Instead of being a drill sergeant when it comes to controlling the brand, perhaps there’s room to aspire to be a summer camp counselor, facilitating a good time for all and intervening only when the safety or the collective good time is jeopardized.
The old world messages emphasizing frugality were primarily directed at consumers, with temple-like banks meant to instill awe and respect for the institutions managing those funds on a saver’s behalf. But in this century, that same frugality exhortation should be heeded by marketers. Treat attention as the most valuable asset your consumers can give you. The old aphorists were on to something: when it comes to the attention economy, what you save still ensures “a competency for the future.”
Cam Balzer is vice president of emerging media at DoubleClick Performics, and a regular contributor to Chief Marketer. Contact him at [email protected].
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