Marketing is about growing your business, your revenues and your brand's value. If your marketing is based on a model that is outdated it's a waste of your time and your money. We are not here to generate a buzz within the ad community but to generate a buzz in the market place, where it matters. Technology has changed our lives and because of these changes, consumers are no longer being reached effectively by traditional media. We understand that traditional media has lost its effectiveness, and we provide you with solutions that get the most out of your advertising budget.
February 14th, 2005 was a date overlooked by many brands and advertisers until recently. It was the day that the three co-founders of Youtube.com registered their URL. The launch of this social media website itself took almost another year, and as a result, YouTube has helped change the face of advertising.
Social media has now changed three distinct areas of the advertising industry. These changes are not evolutionary, but revolutionary, and are affecting marketing and the way it is produced and seen in a way more dramatic than the introduction of sound to movies.
Advertising is a collaborative art form. This will not ever change. What social media has changed is the way collaboration has shifted from collaboration solely during the production process to collaboration between storytellers, filmmakers and audiences. The shift will have seismic effects on the advrtising industry and will create new methodologies where tried and true marketing traditions will no longer be effective.
The first tradition to be decimated has been the distinction between art and commerce. No longer will money-driven institutes be able to define the so-called creative process by using money as the metrics and defining creativity as an unholy blend of air date, metrics and budgeting. Second to fall, and to fall hard, is the traditional barrier between audiences and marketing people. Until now, a marketer could surmount this wall and reach an audience, but only if there was a huge sum of money. The new digital age means that marketers can now market directly to their audience for a fraction of the traditional cost. The ability of emerging marketers to understand this and utilize these new marketing approaches will define the careers of artists, designers and storytellers for the next thirty years.
The last tradition to fall will be the structures surrounding scripts and story development. Because filmmakers of today and tomorrow can engage directly with the audience, it suggests that the audience will become an important part of the script and story development process from the start of any project. By taking elements of video game storytelling, marketers of the future will be able to create stories that weave multi-layered story layers with a story experience that might include apps, websites as well as other on-line experiences, such as experiential events, with the traditional off-line experience.
A thought from our CCO - Stu Wilson
Imagelab is a marketing and communications company that takes brands from content to commerce and teaches them how to begin conversations with their customers. A unique approach that bridges "people stories' with "product stories" through social media and branded content. We work with brands and their agencies to deliver measurable consumer engagement and grow your business.
Where does this leave brands and advertisers?
New brands as well as marketing people will eventually embrace and utilize all the merits of social media, especially digital collaboration. They will consider themselves visual communicators using a host of storytelling techniques. Their content will straddle the barrier between advertiser and audience. In this new digital age, the opportunities for art and commerce to co-exist in a new format will excite and inspire artists, designers and storytellers in this new age of social media. Those who refuse to adapt to the new social media structures will wither and disappear.
Come check us out on our social media sites for what's new. Most importantly, let us know what you need and how we can help you get your customers talking.