This is mainly aimed at companies with a direct response bias but hey, it’s going to make me unpopular with many of the people looking at this anyway, so I may as well just put it out there….

…Whilst understanding the evolution of the consumer and how they consume is incredibly important in terms of the digital environment, and hence a large focus of marketers on social media and the opportunities which exist within the medium there is something being missed.  Well not so much missed as ignored, or not so much ignored as forgotten whilst they chase the next big thing.  It’s something more traditional media has managed to avoid in terms of the balance of older more proven mediums, and the next new type of marketing – they have struck a balance between older and newer types of traditional marketing which can work.  It has actually been a frustration of many online marketers that they still rely on those older channels rather than moving to digital but then maybe we make them do that?

Is it our fault?  Have we caused it?  Have we made traditional marketers and clients doubt us as digital people because every 3-6 months when you sit in front of them you talk about something different.  The next dream, the next ‘must have’?  Even when these people don’t have the very basics of online covered?

…people advertise online and it makes them think they need to be funky, they need to be on the “next big thing” and they need to be ahead of the curve.  Well whilst that is all fine and good what about actually doing business?  What about actually covering the basics off and actually trying to do what will work for an advertiser and not just make you look good to your friends, colleagues and in the industry?

When we sat at iMedia in various presentations there were brands (which I know) who were speaking about monitoring blogs and being on social networking sites who don’t do search because they can’t fit their T&C’s in the Ad – I mean seriously, IT’S 2008!!!  We’re talking about traditional direct response clients who completely lose their heads (and objectives) when they work online.

I agree that brands need to do certain things to increase profile, interact with consumers in the new environment and behave in a different way, but too many do that at the expense of the basics and their offline goals and then complain that online doesn’t deliver.

How about we actually look at what people aren’t doing, where the gaps are, and not always looking forward to the next trend.  Is it really just me who thinks that many advertisers could do with taking a long hard look at what they are not doing as basic marketing sense rather than thinking about how they link their bloody experiential marketing, their facebook page and their god-dam blog?

It is just crazy that people are not applying business sense to online.  We keep saying it is integrated, it is part of the main and it shouldn’t be treated differently but people do treat it differently, WE TREAT IT DIFFERENTLY AND THEN COMPLAIN THAT OUR CLIENTS AND OFF LINE AGENCIES DO!! People become such wankers concerned not with business but with the dream of what they THINK they can do and the brand halo they dream of creating. HONESTLY PEOPLE, WE’RE HERE TO DRIVE CUSTOMERS, whether that be through indirect brand recall and recognition or direct response through any medium, it doesn’t matter!

It’s not all about acquisition or brand, there must be a mix, but I know a lot of these advertisers and they have limited money, limited resource (marketing and technical) and very limited time – yet they still focus efforts on what could be deemed as fluffy and yet don’t spend where they can acquire customers even when that is their goal.  Brands should have to have the basics covered before they are even allowed to talk about the next frigging trend.

Facebook/Myspace, get over it!  What about tripod, angelfire and geocities – they all come, they all go and no-one gives a shit in a few years and whilst you just dropped 200k building a bloody profile page you didn’t do search, you didn’t do acquisition based marketing, you didn’t do what is actually important and why we all actually do marketing and advertising – TO GET CUSTOMERS.

Half of the fluffy people in advertising & media agencies need a slap in the head for not slapping their clients in the head and BEING HONEST.  Maybe we, as an industry would be far more respected if we didn’t always followed the trends but we started with the basics and let the client build up to the sugar on top.

And before anyone starts – I am not anti-branding online it is a huge component of what the medium has to offer.  I am not anti-social media, it is most definitely an integral part of so many peoples lives and we need to understand how we work with and integrate with that.  I just honestly believe we’d be a little more respected if we knew about the cool stuff, we knew about the next big thing, but our advice to clients was to start at the beginning and take it from there, to start with their company objectives and put them online.  That’s what it’s all about after all.