Embracing a Culture of Authenticity

I recently penned a short piece on the challenges of authenticity in marketing for @Adobe's CMO.com. As more and of the folks we want to speak to not only live on social media but exist in totality as part of a social native culture that not all of us were born into it becomes increasingly important that we examine what this culture is all about, understand it to the extend we can and if possible - live it ourselves.  Above is a great shot of one of my favorite comedians that kind of sums up the issue and below are some thoughts from yours truly.

Social is the new mass media: 

Building brand awareness, generating new customers, and maintaining loyalty with existing customers are top goals that have remained the same for marketers for generations past and for those to come. However, what has changed is the fact that Millennials have caught on to a nuance the older folks are wrestling with. They understand how to reach those goals by taking the reins of marketing budgets and using a new media mix with new tools and tactics. The "I worked at Unilever for two years" school of marketing increasingly doesn't cut it.  More for culture and aesthetic reasons than mechanical ones.  Millennials seamless integration with social life is helping social media to eclipse and drive the evolution of “word-of-mouth” marketing, and in many places completely replacing traditional marketing. It makes sense.

Businesses of all sizes must speak to audiences through the medium where they are - where they spend most of their time. As a younger person I zoned out in front of the TV watching Mash reruns all day. Now more than ever, that audiences attention is on social media. According to our recent survey, nine out of 10 Millennials at SMBs lead with social media in their marketing strategies. Marketing imitates life...

A culture of authenticity: 

In order to make a sale through social media, Millennial marketers understand the importance of authentic messaging specific to channel audiences and content formats. The younger generation knows the culture around social sharing and video storytelling, while the older set are still struggling to figure it out.  Mainly because its harder to buy.  Can you pay an ad agency to make you "authentic" creative content?  Sure.  But its a lot more successful if you, the marketer is just being your authentic self representing your authentic company with a voice and tone you don't have to manufacture you just "get".

The key to successful marketing these days needs to include redefining what the most useful paramaters for marketing "creative" are and that authenticity and personal touch be included in re-imagining how to speak to people not at them via marketing.  There is a second nuance here. Personalization in ad creative is something like  "Hey Reid we know its you and that you like Patagonia clothing. Do you need a new fleece?". But in creating authentic creative with a personal touch its not about telling me what you know about me but rather telling me what I need to know about you. Alternatively "Hey I'm Michael X, I run Y for Patagonia here in Portland ME, the thing I love about Pataonia is Z, come give us a visit at www.authenticclimbingstories.com".  The best way to describe it is missing these 2 nuances in how you design cretive and marketing campaigns is like showing up to a pool party in a Tuxeedo - Read more at: https://scl.io/VypEOeBj#gs.Yv6b08s