Preface: Why we should do #WhatTheInternetWants, part one

Winning in marketing today means playing according to the rules and implications of the technology that has transformed the world. 

The Internet is an open, decentralized, global network of computer networks that leverages, enhances and ultimately evolves other forms of media and technology.

It’s a communications platform. But really, now and going forward, the Internet is the communications platform.

Communication was and remains central to the development and growth of humans; we quite literally are because we communicate. Communication is humanity’s adaptation and our advantage. It’s why we won, and why sharks, bears, lions and crocodiles lost.

So powerful and central to our existence, the Internet and the digital technology proliferation it enabled literally shot us into – and defines – a new era of civilization.

• Doubt it? Think back to social studies and the Industrial Revolution. A rush of mechanical, process and communications innovations (telegraph, telephone, photograph) resulted in across-the-board, off-the-charts disruption.
• Now consider the effects of that revolution: Economic & political polarization, the rise of developing nation powerhouses, clusters of financial crises, whole economic sectors emerging & collapsing, new ways of working, urbanization, identity disruption, class conflict, accelerated social change, institutional distrust & disenfranchisement. Does that all sound familiar?

This is what it feels like to live at the inflection point between epochs. Exciting/Scary. Illuminating/Disorienting. Opportunity/Crisis. 

Industrial Age disruption created new rules, values and value-drivers. Those who internalized and acted in accordance with the emerging dynamics rode the momentum and achieved supernatural success. See: Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, et al.

The same holds true for the Internet. As it has become context for everything, playing according to the rules the Internet creates – and the implications of these rules – is what determines success now and into the foreseeable future. See: Bezos, Zuckerberg, Brin/Page, et al.

Marketers and communicators understand the implications here too, but, ironically, we’ve not really metabolized the new reality. 

• For the most part we’re still trying to muscle it, shoving value props into eyes and ears – though we’re admittedly putting the pills into increasingly better applesauce.
• And for the most part, while inbound/content marketing is a step in the right direction, the majority of it doesn’t represent a huge value add vs. the rest of the content universe. Just an SEO/SEM play – which is ok – but it’s no silver-bullet.
• People are too media savvy and busy and skeptical. The landscape is too altered and fractured and competitive. Technology alone cannot win the day. And sooner than you think, the wizardry of programmatic personalization at scale will be accessible and affordable enough to become table stakes.

Those of us who have been in the business long enough can viscerally feel the change. We gauge and generate and package results, but we know in our bones that we’re usually not connecting.

Occasionally we do, though. Some great creative here. An insightful media approach there. An app that meets a meaningful need. The right UX overhaul for a transactional or a high consideration category site. A big event or stunt done right. The occasional tactical innovation…

Even when we do break through, it’s incredibly difficult to replicate success with consistency. There are too many factors to factor. Too much change. Too much “new.” Too much data. Too many options. Not enough time.

Taking a step back, what’s missing are the big picture, universally-lauded case studies and/or frameworks to help guide the way we must now plan and then go-to-market in totality – to inform not just when and where but how brands need to approach today’s consumer journey.

That’s a big ask, for sure. A bit of boiling the ocean. And yet…

If only subconsciously, tuned-in practitioners of all generations sense an underlying logic – a different way that things need be done. Consumers (also known as “people”) are also onto the frequency. Everyone knows that the Internet means an altogether new communications grammar.

It is a thing. People feel it. They can sense when brands are “Internet-ty,” and otherwise, when they’re irrelevant.

And if it’s a thing… if there’s a logic to it… if businesses can understand the Internet well enough to build revolutionary new models and products and services from it, marketers can figure out how to extrapolate approaches that fall in line with its will.

Or at least we can try. Gotta have a plan to change it.

View "Why we should do #WhatTheInternetWants, part two"

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?A hybrid, multi-disciplinary creative/brand strategist with skills developed across the entire marketing ecosystem, Todd Lowe does everything from brand, connections, campaign and content strategy to communications/content ideas and marketing innovation.

As he decodes the marketing lessons from #WhatTheInternetWants, offline he unpacks the underlying strategic implications and applies them to building solutions on behalf of brands, agencies and consultancies.

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Background/sources

Image: https://www.teepublic.com/kids-t-shirt/2874404-internet