The End Of “Non Standard” Communication?

Marketers are often referring to buzz marketing, web 2.0, ambient media, social media… as “non standard” advertising. If we look back in time about what happened last 10 years, we must admit that there where more innovation in communication techniques than ever before. The Pandora box has been opened and everyday a newest and hypest way to market was brought to light: Massive e-mails campaign let place to Spams, promo became street / guerrilla marketing, TV commercials became viral videos, interruption marketing became permission marketing, customers became brand ambassadors, special events became buzz marketing… All this was very confusing at the end of the day as communication trends are evaluating faster than anyone can forecast. Today very few viral videos succeed in cutting through the clusters, massive e-mail campaign have generally a 2/3% return rate, 3 years ago nobody knew about Facebook or twitter, virtual world are attractive anymore only to hard gamers…



New medias and new communication techniques are not a fad. But they must be understood as what they really are and what particular purpose they aim. Their goal is to engage consumers within the brand or product, this is why I rather refer to “Consumer’s Engagement Marketing” as an umbrella term to define all new marketing approaches we referred to. Internet is concretely the best direct marketing tool someone could imagine: It allows marketers to have a precise targeting of their audiences, to tailor offers for each individual, to create entertainment, visibility and to activate CRM programs. Today Internet is the biggest media in spending in the UK, right before TV. In France more than 65% of the population is connected regards to only 1% in 1997. Facebook was created in 2004 and gather now-a-day more than 300 millions members. The “U.S. Advertising Spending” report forecasts that by yearend 2011 spending on online advertising will reach $42 billion.

When TV was invented and started spreading in a domestic way, I can imagine that marketers at that time might have referred to TV advertising as a “non-standard” way of communication. Today it would be ridiculous to say so because we know how much a developed and powerful media it is. We understand as well that Internet is a powerful and democratic tool that might even replace TV, press and radio at once. But we still refers it as a “non standard” media. Consumer’s Engagement Marketing is more targeted, more efficient, more precise, more involving and more controlled than any other media channel. So my question is how long will it take before advertisers will understand that Internet is becoming the number one media channel?

by Thierry CELLERIN, specialist in buzz marketing