The Distant Future...the Year 2000

I think the future of advertising and PR revolves around a single concept. This concept is this: Everyone is a potential nerd. So we, as advertisers, must figure out what our audience is nerdy or could be potentially nerdy about, and then figure out a way to connect our brand to those things in an unobtrusive, respectful, smart, meaningful and sophisticated way. One of the articles talked about how JJ Abrams did this for his movie Cloverfield. JJ Abrams, along with Chris Nolan are two writers/directors that are pretty hip to New Media. They are constantly employing viral marketing techniouques in their advertising but doing it very intelligently, without insulting the fans. They are the ones that can even get away with doing it obtrusively because they are just brilliant geniuses, and their work allows them to. But brands like say, Pepsi, will have to do it in unobtrusive ways if they want the respect of the audience. But I really think that advertisers have to figure out ways to make people feel like they are respecting their intelligence instead of just trying to sell them something. What do I mean by meaningful ? Besides the obvious? Well take a look at that Brawny article. They were trying to cash in on the New Media trend and just had no idea how to do it conceptually. That was not meaningful to the audience and it wasn't in any way smart either. I believe the article's author called it "idiotic" and that is quite the perfect term.

Another future trend I think I would think about if I were an ad exec is not giving away the whole story in the main event. Take Lost for example. Lost releases games and does tie ins with other films and shows (they actually did one with Cloverfield that was very talked about) where they embedd clues not available on the show. I know a big group of people that bought tickets to an Imax film just because the trailers featured the first 8 minutes of the upcoming Batman movie. Chris Nolan organized rallies specific to each city he chose to do his Batman promotions in-Austin was one of them...you could find clues on the street in the form of cards with web addresses that you had to go online and figure out h ow to enter in ...I mean this was elaborate stuff much like the ARGs they talked about in the Nine Inch Nails article. And Trent Reznor said that it wasn't advertising or trying to sell anything but the genius of it is that those types of antics still get you press and then you're also ultra cool for not "advertising". What viral marketing does is create hierarchies within its fan base...all of a sudden, teh people that participate, the people that keep up with every minute detail become the elite. and they actually in this way, become gigantic billboards, spreading their knowledge to their friends. It creates a sort of competition if your nerd base starts logging on everyday to see teh latest viral ad campaign that may or may not give out some hidden clues. It also gives you extra time to think and come up with answers. In this way, its like a virus. So appropriately named is the term.

After reading about the Joga.com Nike/Google endeavour, I'm actually kind of curious to find out how successful they are today. The strategy employed Google's gmail 'invite only' bent, which again creates a sort of elitism.

I also just wanted to point out that one of the most successful campaigns mentioned in the readings was called ilovebees, and the WOMAN behind it, is speaking at SXSW interactive-Jane McGonigal. The article didn't credit her (boo to them!) but she was the mastermind behind it and many other popular and successful New Media/brand integrations.

I think the most annoying thing in existance, and something I hope is a fad, are certain types of Facebook widgets. All the sites are trying to do them now and they are obnoxious. Some of them are done well, but it seems to be a case of the Pareto principle here...80% are horrible and annoying, and 20% are actually well done. Well, maybe even less than that. But you can't really deny the success advertisers are having with Facebook so if the widgets get better and start working better, they might be around forever. That is when I'll delete my account that's for sure.

I'm also glad that one of the articles talked about how nerds are a precious commodity, and they weren't just 8 years ago when they were all being laid off. This too is the future of advertising...people that work with their creative and business brains. When I was in my undergrad at UT, I majored in Creative Advertising and it was just drilled into our brains that we were the creatives and the losers who couldn't think were the suits. It was so very Eastside and Westside in the rap world. Now it seems a new breed of people are a hot commodity, and its those of us that feel we fall somewhere in the middle. For that, huzzahs are in order.