Common Sense: The Least Common of all Senses

Please… correct me if I’m wrong; but advertising/marketing is about finding the single most appealing cultural relevance of any given brand, and coming up with the most spontaneous way to make a connection with any given demographic, right?

In order to do so, as professionals helping brands make such connection, we still need to have the ability to observe from the outside, and be attentive to everything that is going on beyond the Social Media halls: read magazines, books, pay attention to outdoor advertising, what type of concerts are going on, what’s selling at music stores, how outdoor advertising is being displayed and -simply- just how people go about their daily lives making their way through everything mentioned above. These will give us the ability to make a better and smoother transition from one way of communication to the other, without falling into the same old same old.

Why are we so determined on the idea of handling this new way of communicating (as a business model) the same way traditional media handled theirs? As an industry, we did a great job to bring advertising to what -I’d like to think- we all wanted it to become: a true and direct connection with our consumers. I mean, that was the thinking behind the minds of our pioneers (I refused to quote them, because by now, I’m sure you all know hundreds of their quotes), and now that is here we will halt its evolution if we don’t stop for a minute and think.

Although I’m a firm believer that brands can’t just come into our lives, one day to the next, invade our personal space and expect to be received as any other human out there, the level of intimacy brands are able to reach with their consumers is that of a human - a person, even a friend. Therefore they need to be treated (from our pov, as the ones shaping the brands’ personality) as such - with common sense. I don’t think any of us go around our circle of friends stating the obvious: “hey we’re going to this meeting, you need to be polite, shake hands and be respectful…” (If you do, I’m sorry). Instead, we could, however, tell them: “as we walk into the room, Mike is the person you should shake hands first, he likes baseball and hates the Yankees…”

The reason why I draw this simple analogy is because they are just that: simple, not very difficult to come up with, to notice, to see with just a little bit of common sense; and it bothers me that companies spend so much money on “research” that tell them just that: state the obvious.

In addition to the link/example above, and with all due respect to the people at white paper source, they came up with a Social Media Marketing report that had been well received (and appreciated) within the industry, and people are going crazy over findings such as:

“Nearly all marketers who’ve been doing social media marketing for years report it generates exposure for their business and a significant 64.86% strongly agree.”

I mean, I would hope so. If I were aspiring to become a professional athlete trying to to catch the attention of scouts/professional teams, and have years trying, I hope my chances of being noticed increase over time (assuming I’m talented enough and have the right agent = for our sake, a good Social Media marketing agency).

“Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who’ve been using social media for years, with nearly 80% reporting a rise (and most reporting a strong improvement).”

Again, if out of all the guys trying to get signed, I’m the one who’s been doing it the longest (and assuming we are all at the same level), I should be ahead in the ranking, don’t you think?

The idea of Social Media is to be spontaneous, genuine, personal, using common sense; and although the program has some great information, we should try to devote our resources (time, money, personnel) to figure out what are the ever-changing cultural insights that can help us make a human connection with our consumers without being intrusive, and help this new business model evolve.

Aroldo Nery

Social Media Brand Director @ The Re Agency