Advertising should attract attention. But for what? And what is the impetus? For a product? A company? A service? Yes! But how, at the current noise level? Even louder? Not possible. Even more colorful, elaborate, more expensive, bigger? No! More courageous, intelligent, faster and more focused – otherwise it won’t work.
Credibility is the new watchword in communication. The best proof of this is the constantly increasing number of users in Groundswell*. Although only 29% of these are active and the majority are passive and still somewhat insecure, the situation is changing rapidly, daily- and on both sides. Suppliers and buyers are constructing a new set of rules. The motto: „Those who are late will be punished by the customer.“ Those who are not there today will give up their power and their markets tomorrow to competitors or newcomers.
For you, however, this means: First of all, you yourself must believe in your new messages, in your power, in your product, in your performance and in what you have to offer. Aldous Huxley once wrote a long, fact-based essay about a small piece of chalk. Jean-Henri Fabre wrote thick books about the fly and the spider…
In Matthew Josephson’s book Zola and His Time, there is the following observation: „What matters is that you look at the object you want to describe long enough and with enough attention so that you extract from it an aspect that no one else has found. All things have unexplored sides, because we are accustomed to have our way of looking determined by previous ways of looking at things. The most inconspicuous object still holds unknowns. Let’s look for it.“
And then? Have the courage to communicate it even in a way that makes noise. But credibly. Simply, clearly, distinctly, transparently and convincingly. What does that have to do with courage? And how is it different from what you’ve always done? The answer is nothing. The score is the same, the orchestra has also remained the same and the audience has remained the same, only the role of the conductor has been taken over by others! It is no longer you, the manufacturer, who sets the pace – it is now the influencers who do it among themselves and according to new rules. These influencers are credible to potential new customers, faster, shriller, more diverse. They can be characterized by obeying only themselves. No one is in control of them- yet. No one knows how and why they work and why they don’t work for some people. Only one thing is certain: Without a credible story, your product will not get anywhere – whether through a traditional advertising company or the know-how of influencers. Today, a story that creates noise is ahead of the game. And as you probably know from your own experience: stories without pictures are like Stuttgart without 21, like Facebook without terms and conditions, or like a phone without an I.
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