These days every CMO and account lead worth their golden parachutes talks about how we shouldn't be shoving messages at consumers. Instead, they tell us, we ought to be creating experiences. We ought to make it easy for the consumer to interact with and play with the brand.
Of course, these same CMOs and account leads are still allocating the largest portion of their budgets to creating television commercials that no one notices any more. Experience be damned, we have to create a spot.
Not long ago I started thinking that despite all the cosmetic integration between those spots, and online efforts and in-store efforts, etc., what is absent is intelligent communications integration. That's a high-falutin' way of saying it doesn't seem like we've figured out how to use each media to the benefit of the product or service we are trying to sell. So here's the analogy I started using. Good web experiences should be viewed the same way you'd view a trip to the Apple store. Part information. Part entertainment. Part commerce. An amalgam a 30 simply cannot capture. So what would happen if we said our site is the movie, the show, the experience. Other media, TV, print, banners, must intrigue and entice and drive us to the show.
That's a different way of looking at the marketing world. I'm not sure it's right. But I am sure it's worth thinking about.
