The Inkstained Mind: Psst, who's the new guy in the room?

4 Jan 2010

Psst, who's the new guy in the room?

He's the Consumer. And, er, we're in his bedroom!

Flashback...

A long time ago, Advertising talked to individuals.

These were folk you'd see at the busstop; haggling with the storekeeper; alternately sending kids off to school and yelling at them; and sometimes preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

But they were different people. All of them. About the only thing they had in common was that they were likely to buy what we were Advertising!

Later...

Perhaps to fit in with our obession for mass media, we took to creating ads for a faceless, generic statistic called the Target Group (TG).

Once the human element vanished, with it naturally, went empathy.

The Consumer didn't much care for Advertising anyway. He doesn't perceive, let alone relate to, most of it! Irrelevance now made it easier to ignore - like the noise on a busy street. Then we raised the decible level. And promptly became annoying too!

Now, with Social Media, we're climbing in through the Consumer's bedroom windows. Literally.

It's time we dropped our obsession with the medium, introduced ourselves, and got to know him personally.

Or this could get ugly!

1 comment:

Arun Kumar said...: have u noticed that the only people actually bothered with ads are kids? and so u actually get a precise feedback..... like " this never happens", " this guy sells so many things" (on certain brand ambassedors), hehehhe so funny (on zou zou, though they have no clue what phones have to do with it).adults are too cynical just like the buggred ad men. both think they are too smart too! the only people who think they got it all right is the client and the research agency both of which is insulated against blame by the focus consumer group research feedback. so ultimately it seems its the consumer to be blamed for some realllllyyyyyy bad ads!!!!; Wednesday, 06 January, 2010

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WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

It's often called the world's second oldest profession.

But while the scope of the oldest one has changed little over time, the evolution in the way we communicate has had profound impact on Advertising.

In the ancient and medieval world, Advertising meant word-of-mouth. In the 1500s with the development of printing it became a 'paid public notice', disseminating the message to many. And it had Copy & Art.

Then came radio, TV, computer, cable TV, Internet, mobile phones, Internet on mobile, and it's still not done... Even what we perceive as 'change' is changing. Continuously.

So what is Advertising today?

Honestly, I don't know.

But I do know from a dozen years evolving with the business, that Advertising is most valued when it can make a tangible difference for the advertiser.

That has not changed. And probably won't.

UPDATE: Nothing's changed. But in a way, everything has.

As you see, my focus has shifted - evolved in a way - to a larger canvas. The shift or evolution was gradual, and may be have been discernable to the more observant reader.

While I was delving into the influence of media in society to better understand how perceptions are created, evolved and disseminated, I chanced upon a thread of knowledge that I frankly never knew existed.

My conclusion is that a deep pool of awareness and consciouness exists beyond the shallow narcissistic boundaries created by the convention view of social media and the Internet.

My aim is to send my readers down any path that can lead to this quenching pool.