The media is the "massage."

Separating the Advocacy From the Advocate.

We don’t believe you should spend all your money on expensive software to help you identify advocates or consultants that can’t write or draw either.

At our agency, we’ve tried pretty much every new piece of software and idea in brand advocacy since 2010. It’s all been great to have, but not all that helpful over time. Or maybe we’ve been too embarrassed to recommend tools like “Ambassify” and “Smarp.”

The real reason current approaches to brand advocacy fail is because they don’t separate the advocate from the advocacy. While you can point to cave drawings to prove the lasting power of advocacy, we prefer to share the insights of Canadian media professor Marshall McLuhan.

In his seminal work, Understanding Media, he coined two famous terms. “The Global Village” to describe how TV was making the world a smaller place and “the media is the message” to describe how it altered human behavior.

School teachers in Dr. Mcluhan’s will tell you homework excuses skyrocketed after the price of TVs dropped low enough for everyone to own one.

The funny thing about media, however, is that it can be manipulated to amplify the heck out of a message. Which is why the advocacy itself—or the message – is still more important than the advocate who delivers it. Advocates merely heighten the message by setting it free to take its own course.

McLuhan lived that belief. When his book “The Medium is the Message” (a follow up to Understanding Media) came back from the printer with “Message” spelled as “Massage” he ran with it!.

McLuhan’s phrase had become so universally acknowledged by every media pundit, zeitgeist surfer and counterculture hero of the time, he realized he could play with it.