I was having lunch the other day with ERSP Program Analyst Bob Hilleman and our former ERSP colleague Tessa Barrera. Soon, the conversation turned to the subject of traditional television and print advertising and how these promotional vehicles (though still packing a powerful punch) will soon be considered the advertising models of the past. We discussed how new outlets such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Second Life and Twitter have arisen as new outlets for marketers to explore. Yes, marketers are realizing that as technology advances so must marketing, and these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. However, perhaps looking at why traditional marketing campaigns succeeded can help guide the jump into exploring the new media.

Think back to the advertising campaigns that you remember: M&M’s “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”; Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” and Campbell Soup’s “Mmm…Mmm good.” All catchy taglines tied to successful advertising campaigns that appeal to the consumer’s feelings of trust, quality and security. By building a recognizable brand, the advertising worked to reinforce and create the connection with the consumers by appealing to their emotional sense of quality, fairness and connection. What makes a successful brand and a successful advertisement is that emotional connection. Consumers have to invest themselves into the subject, the character or the product.

More and more, new technology is on the rise. YouTube or Vimeo features short, digestible clips. Twitter issues one-sentence updates. Tumblr is built for short and quick blogging. The focus is on content, quick, constantly updating, but never in-depth. This speed, this bite-size focus is being heralded as the wave of the future, but it doesn’t allow for the building of a brand. It’s focused on tiny bits of information ready now, not to be stored away but to create a temporary quick fix for a need of information. It’s exciting, it’s constantly moving, it’s cutting edge. Yet, it is also, as of now, fairly impersonal. Consumers are there for the speed of changing content, not for the emotional ties to others. Tubmlr is attempting to incorporate those two aspects—building on the social connections of a Facebook, but still on the speed of a Twitter. Yet still, even with the social networking tie-in, the speed of the information has not yet been harnessed to achieve emotional connections.

One “new” area that has been receiving the most attention from news outlets of late is Second Life (“SL”), and its small but dedicated user base. This simulated reality offers an intriguing foray into marketing in a new medium and an illustration of how technology can successfully merge with successful advertising. As the hype builds around this medium, companies and organizations have jumped on board over the past few years: Reuters has its own SL newsroom; Harvard hosted a lecture; and Desmond Tu Tu gave a virtual speech. Certain real world companies have already started up businesses and marketing to explore the potential of this outlet to prove and explore that SL, if not other future similar simulated realities, are ripe for virtual advertising potential that translate into real world sales—Nissan, 1-800 Flowers, Starwood Hotels, American Apparel all have a simulated presence that allows for both virtual and real life commerce.

Although SL may not be a long lasting or even successful venture, it is a case to examine how advertising must advance in the future. Unlike the constantly evolving quick fire technology like a Twitter that just satiates a need for instant gratification, people invest themselves into simulated reality. That’s why a technology like SL is interesting. They connect and invest in others and their realm. It is a simulated reality and in the simulated reality, they lead lives with real, not simulated emotions. Real emotions and real connections take time and this platform, unlike the rapid execution of a Twitter, takes real time to flourish. It is in this type of environment that a marketer may have the most success to explore the building of a name and trust with a consumer that can translate into real offline sales. Although commerce can be conducted in SL and real world money made, the most exciting part is what happens with the user goes offline. The exposure and advertising in a virtual setting can translate into offline sales. Even more exciting is the interconnectivity of SL to the Internet and the potential for direct sales for marketers. It’s the emotional investment of such an environment that could be the success and the future of marketing.

However SL, although a fantasy environment, is struggling with real world litigation and regulation. As with the recent closing of banks and the shutting of its gambling empire, SL residents have been faced with the reality that real world law still governs simulated reality. With that, advertising will come under the same scrutiny. As technology advances beyond what is considered traditional media, recent ERSP decisions regarding online marketing—such as those involving advertising for the Zeno acne device and the TIGHT FEM dietary supplement—illustrate that just because advertising and commerce take place online, it doesn’t exclude it from obeying advertising law.

New technology is an inventive way to explore how to reach more consumers. However, as technology pushes the envelope, it is traditional advertising principles of branding and emotional connecting that should be reinforced. Build your brand, create trust with your target audience base and be mindful of the real world regulations that transcend developing technology.

Ironically, our lunch ended with Bob checking his MySpace page from his BlackBerry, Tessa discarding Verizon advertising from her cell phone and me texting my wife at her new media conference in Tribeca. At that moment, I was not envious of marketers attempting to make emotional bonds with consumers in Second Life, while we were still struggling to connect here in our first ones…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: , bob hilleman, ERSP, facebook, M&Ms, peter marinello, tessa barrera, wendy's, youtube

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Advertising, Just for fun..., Marketer, Mobile, Social Networks, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.