Is 2010 The New 1910? - Tom Cunniff - MediaBizBloggers

When we think about change, we tend to ask "how is today different than yesterday? And how will tomorrow be different from today?"

But we may not be looking far enough backward to get a useful perspective.

It might be smarter to look back about 100 years, to 1910.

In 1910, the major cultural force wasn't TV. It was the back fence. That's where people would go to catch up on each others' lives, to discuss politics and business and what was going on in their town.

Conversation helped grease the wheels of commerce.

The Rise Of Broadcast

The advent of broadcast – radio, then TV –drew us away from the back fence. It offered a magic window that showed us Ozzie and Harriet's house, Vietnam and the moon. We learned things: Mr. Ed talks. Charlie's Angels fight crime in bikinis. Calgon takes us away.

Our worlds got bigger in many ways, but smaller in another: we spent less time with people and more time alone in front of the tube.

As journalist Milton Mayer said, "radio and television are marvels of one-way communication, which is not communication at all."

Perhaps the biggest revolution that digital brings is that it has returned us to the back fence.

The Digital Back Fence

Today the back fence is digital, mobile, and always-on. It's Facebook and Twitter, and maybe Foursquare too. And the town is simultaneously more global and more local than ever.

It's drawing us away from the TV a little bit, back to people.

In fact, if we strip away the technology, pretty much everything that happens at the back fence would be instantly familiar to someone from 1910.

People are catching up about what's happening with each other's families. They're sharing tips and ideas. They're expressing themselves with home-made items. (In 1910 it was pies and knitting; today it's photos and blogs.)

And just as we did in 1910, we chat over the back fence about the products we have tried. Was the salesman charming? Or pushy? We laugh at the clumsy salesmen and buy from the ones we trust.

We tell each other when a product really works and warn each other about the ones that snookered us.

The back fence is returning to its natural role as the hub of people's lives. It makes marketing tougher, but it's probably a healthier way for people to live.

The Difference Between 2010 and 1910

But it's not exactly like 1910, is it?

Instead of a wooden back fence, we have a digital back fence with a big-screen TV permanently mounted on the fence posts. Sometimes we pay attention to it and sometimes we don't, but it's always there.

Similarly, when we watch TV there's always a computer screen (desktop, laptop or mobile) available. Sometimes we pay attention to it and sometimes we don't, but it's always there.

So paid media and social media are not separate at all: they're a new kind of feedback loop. And as we integrate our efforts, we should remember that part of the role of paid media is to give people something to be social about.

We talk about the latest episode of 30 Rock, and Final Four basketball. But we also talk about the ads we love -- and hate. And that's a clue to where the opportunities lie.

Marketing In The Feedback Loop

If the Digital Back Fence is where the action is, a good place to start thinking about integrated marketing effort is to ask "what sort of conversation do we hope to start?"

Or said differently, "how we can kick the feedback loop into gear around our brand?"

Unilever started an interesting conversation about what real beauty means. And because it's a conversation people brought up something Unilever may have found uncomfortable.

Nike football started an interesting conversation about competition, with Head2Head: a website that lets players benchmark their stats vs. other players.

Making 1+1 = 11

In the end, it doesn't matter much where the conversation starts: brands can choose to kick it off, or pick up on it. The important thing is not to let opportunities fall between silos.

We need to develop a vision across the silos of traditional, social, mobile, direct, etc and find a way to unify the disparate efforts into something that adds up for our brands.

It's 1910 all over again. It's time to reinvent what we do for a living.

I can't imagine a better time to be in this business.

Tom Cunniff began his career as a copywriter at traditional agencies, founded an interactive agency in 1994 and now works on the marketing side creating and integrating traditional and interactive. All of Tom's opinions are entirely his own. Tom can be reached at tomcunniffnyc@gmail.com.

Read all Tom's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Radical Common Sense - MediaBizBloggers.

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