5 Apr 2008

Is Marketing Headed to the Politicians?

A few weeks ago I had a great conversation with someone in Yahoo!'s Social Media Sales Strategy Group (I will keep the name confidential). During the conversation, he said something that has stuck in my head and sent shivers down my spine. We talked about how marketing is changing from pushing out controlled messages to engaging in brand shaping engagement with customers. In this world, marketers who cling to controlling the message will increasingly fail and those who are great at engaging the population and shaping popular opinion will be the successful marketers. He then made the off-hand comment that the best people he has ever seen at this skill are political campaigners.

Shivers went down my spine. Those who know me know that I am not a fan of political campaigns. I feel it is a world dedicated to skillfully avoiding any genuine discussion on any issue. Is this where new advances in technology are moving marketing towards? He may have a point. Political campaigners are incredibly skilled maintaining their candidate's brand despite engaging with voters. I am hoping that since candidates only need to engage with voters once every couple of years and they engage with their brands every day, that the population will demand a more genuine form of engagement from their brands. Is this wishful thinking? I can't get this prospect out of my head. What does everyone else think?