Yakkity Yak

When our eldest daughter was a toddler, she had an amusing habit.  She would sit in her car seat chattering away, regaling us with stories and songs until she fell asleep. The amusing part was she would often fall asleep in the middle of a sentence or verse (some of my friends have the same habit now and I’m always afraid that they’ll spill whatever they’re holding…).  It was a monologue, something she was doing for her own benefit.  We’d hear her but not – she was just making noise until she fell asleep.
There are a lot of marketers out there doing the same thing.  They’re using one -way media and are asking people to listen but how do they know if people are?  Program ratings?  These are, in my book, educated guesses.   Sales reports? Those are too multichannel to pin down the effects of much.

Marketers need clarity.  There is incredible pressure to produce results.  In a time when things are drastically different, both from a communications and economic perspective, how many marketers are looking at last year’s plan and trying to execute it one more time?  It’s nice to have familiarity with the media model, and the old model is still effective in many ways.

What’s changed – a LOT – is consumers.  Facebook turned 5 yesterday.  It and the dozens of clones out there have changed consumer interaction with media and with one another.  Last year’s plan, heavily reliant on one-way media, does not engage consumers in the manner to which they have become accustomed.  They want to converse, not just to listen.  They want YOU to listen to them, not just to speak.  How are you doing that?

It was nice to hear the baby in the back seat.  We were aware of her but mostly we’d ignore whatever she was saying until it grew quiet.  Is that how you want consumers dealing with you?