Shift Happens. Perspective Makes the Difference
March 13, 2009 by Mary Ellen
“Spend or Die.” So headlined an opinion piece in AdweekMedia Magazine, February 23, 2009. This is a refreshing turn of commentary.
The Editors urged the marketing and media industries to initiate economic stimulus effects of their own. In their words,
This will take more than a little backbone and a ton of vision, but we feel that those firms that shore up their market positions will survive now and thrive later.
We’re not talking about throwing money down the rat hole of convention. This spending will have to be focused on insulating brands from the economic chaos that swirls around them. The padding will come in three forms: supporting smart brand extensions, embracing new technology platforms and retaining talented employees to make the first two work.
The article quoted from Editor & Publisher, reporting “unique traffic for the websites of the Top 30 newspapers has skyrocketed even as their traditional print platforms continue to spiral into deeper gloom.”
Moving out of fear may be the single biggest challenge any of us face. Without question, opportunities exist. Until and unless perception shifts, those opportunities may not be apparent. One of the fun pieces of marketing is identifying shifts, experimenting with them and telling others.
David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly defied convention this week as he announced Kindle2 owners could download his new best seller “World Wide Rave: Creating triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and share your stories” at no charge from Amazon Kindle. The publisher, John Wiley & Sons is supportive of the idea; Scott maintains that free content sells content.
If you have a kindle, download World Wide Rave now and tell your friends. (This offer good through Sunday, March 15.) I encouraged one client to do this; she because so excited about possibilities for her business that she’s gone into an e-book writing retreat. Meanwhile, as proof positive that the viral idea works in many ways, I was motivated to buy a kindle and download the book myself.
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