I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday and she copped to the fact that she was sick of hearing about 360º marketing, simply because in her experience, it’s pure fiction.  And if you give it a moment’s thought, you’ll realize she’s got a point.

The idea of surrounding someone with advertising messages, of earning her attention in every medium at every moment is not simply absurd, it’s kind of creepy.  More importantly, it’s fiscally impossible.  Even automakers don’t have the kinds of advertising budgets that can even approach omnipresence anymore.  We have to be more choiceful.

The question of where, when and how to engage our consumers has never presented a greater challenge: in a dis-integrated media environment, it’s never been harder to select which opportunities to present our products in an engaging, relevant way.

It’s never been harder.  And it’s never been more important either.

The wiser way to think of targeting an audience is not the indiscriminate metaphor of a daisy-cutter bomb, but rather a series of purposeful rifle shots.

Actually, after typing that, it’s clear the first thing we should jettison is militaristic jargon.  Yeech…  So instead of the loudspeaker announcement to a disengaged general population, let’s arrange more opportunities to shake hands and introduce ourselves.

That’s so much more neighborly.  And social.  And welcome.

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By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

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