What embodies 2006?
David Armano over at Logic+Emotion would like to know:
What was the most significant event/aspect of 2006 in regards to marketing, advertising or user experience?
I personally have a little trouble with this question. It's HUGE! And I have trouble separating myself from it enough to look with an objective eye. YouTube has certainly blown up this year, culminating in its purchase by Google. Hell, Google has blown up even further this year, bringing itself beyond the search engine arena.
From a more industry-specific point of view, we've seen smaller agencies make a come-back. Which I love. Just last night I was at dinner with a friend talking about small agencies and where they're headed (yeah, I guess that makes us bona fide ad nerds) along with the difference between her 12-man shop and mine at 250.
I think the reality is that we didn't see any huge single event in 2006. In my mind, that event needs to be something that the general public could see, even if they weren't immediately aware that they were seeing it. Some shift in the industry that was visible from the outside. And I don't think we did.
Even if we take that qualifier away and ask from an industry standpoint, I think something's missing. Lots of account movement, as usual. More small shops taking bigger accounts. Cool. But nothing to stop the presses over.
Maybe in 2007?
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I have to strongly disagree.
The entire marketing paradigm saw a shift in 2006. Regardless of how much or how little we personally choose embrace UGC, viral video, social networking, and so on, they’ve leapt (and not subtly) from being “alternative” means of marketing to nearly a default setting (for many agencies) in 2006. Sure, they were there before, but had for so long lingered on the outside looking in. In my opinion, 2006 marked the first time that the consumer was venerated by the marketer, not in a pandering sense, but in an actual “no, like, really-really, what do you think?” sense.
Good point Jaynie; I hadn’t really looked at it from that angle. My only problem here is that I’m not sure I’d agree that companies are really asking “what do you think?” Sure, a few of them have started the whole UGC commercial thing, etc, but I think that’s a publicity stunt in a way. I still don’t believe that these companies REALLY care what I think as much as they’re jumping on the bandwagon. Maybe I’m a cynic, but until I see these BIG companies trying to act like small ones in the way they really treat their customers, I don’t consider it a change.
I think they do actually want to know. Take for example all of the companies inserting themselves into MySpace. While you could certainly still call this a publicity stunt on one hand, it also proves that we’re itching to get inside the pulse of the ripest demos — even if it means entering their world(s).
That’s the big difference I see… more and more we’re finding ourselves (as marketers) playing on the consumer’s turf. In MySpace and YouTube (and all of their less trafficked permutations), the consumer most definitely has home field advantage.
I’d say that that’s the biggest shift.
Danny,
don’t overthink this.
I asked the question because I was looking for a story. Every year has a story and I am offering up my personal time to help tell a small slice of it. The comments on the post have already generated the content. Now I just nead to weave something from it.
I chose to pose the question this way to help focus the answers, which I think it has–though each perspective expressed in the comments section is unique. Maybe we didn’t see a huge event as much as many little events that add up to something big. To me, that’s worth capturing somehow and I intend to give it a shot.
That’s a good point David. I was looking for the single answer which is where I got stumped. Admittedly, I have a little trouble “stepping back” far enough to see the full picture, though its something that I’m trying to get better at.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes of this. It should make for a very interesting article/story.