Idea Management

Brands are fake. At least many of them are. And by fake I mean that they use ‘branding’ to cover up who they really are - not accectuate it. In an effort to simply get online, many successful businesses have failed to get real with their customers - to show their true colors. For many of them to do that successfully, they’d have to re-evaluate who they really are - and that can be a freightening prospect.

However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the trend for transparency is for good reason. Whether you choose to participate or not, your brand is likely being discussed online. And the brand you’ve worked so hard to build through traditional channels can quickly crumble in the online social arena.

I’ve come from so many agencies that are looking for the new trend. That hip way to market and sell brands. But, as I see it, one of the biggest problems with brands is not their advertising. It’s their transparency. If you’re proud of your brand and who you are, why do you try so hard to cover it up with clever headlines and beautiful design? One of the trends is for agencies to get their clients to participate in social media. And while they need to be in that space, many brands simply aren’t ready for it.

Great advertising excites me. It’s why I wanted to get into the industry. And while I didn’t have the training or artistic accumen to be a copywriter or designer, I do have what Lawrence Jamieson (Michael Caine) in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels calls “great taste.” The advertising that really makes me proud of the industry I’m in is advertising that gets to the core of a brand. But marketing (especially Interactive marketing) shouldn’t just promote that message. It should help companies revaluate and rediscover.

Interactive marketing is different than digital. Interactive marketing is dialog between a company and its customers. It gets a lot of its momentum from digital technologies, but it IS possible to be interactive without applying any technology at all. It’s possible to be innovative without being complicated. Interactive marketing is about more than messaging. It’s about adding value. Advertising can do more than create perceptions. It can most definitely add value.

A great agency should help companies navigate the various opportunities that exist within the digital landscape. Navigation is more than just existing. Companies need to participate. But participation requires something more than what many companies are willing to concede: transparency.

Many online consumers don’t want to be talked down to. They want to participate in the discussion. And the ones that don’t can still smell it when they feel like they’re being ’sold.’ I still believe that all companies that want to succeed will need broaden their digital footprint. And for many companies that means social media, blogs, applications, widgets, SEO, yadda yadda. But while so many companies are dabbling with the media - others are readjusting their brands to be more transparent. The key is a hard, introspective evaluation.