Keeping the Genuine

We know brand advertising is getting eroded at the core, but the app or environment that express that in a way that light bulbs start going off everywhere hasn’t shown-up yet (although it certainly may exist).

This line by Albert Wenger (and others like it) really got me salivating.

Albert:

But what could really accelerate that trend is the availability of an alternative to classic brand advertising. I believe that alternative is already with us but in its infancy — it is “peer-to-peer” brand advertising or “social” brand advertising. Brands (and social networks) that figure out how to get more consumers who are fans to genuinely recommend the product or service to friends will have the most effective brand advertising. That might involve a lot fewer dollars changing hands than any traditional brand advertising buy.

What’s happening to brand advertising is, of course, no secret. Here’s Bob Garfield in Ad Age:

The future is bright. But the present is apocalyptic. Any hope for a seamless transition — or any transition at all — from mass media and marketing to micro media and marketing are absurd.

Now is the time to experiment with how to support recommendations in social environments without ever losing the “genuine.” That is easy to say, but will be extremely hard to do . . . until some little outfit shows up that just knows how.

As a commenter on Albert’s post said: the trust that powers a genuine recommendation is going to have to be earned.

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