FreshNetworks Blog

We’ve started the week at FreshNetworks with a great video from German agency Scholz & Friends as required reading. The video takes a look at how things have changed for brands, advertisers and marketers over the last 60 years. From the advert-focused world of the 1940s to today’s conversation-driven economy.

There are lots of people talking about the “power of conversations” (and suchlike) in social media and online communities at the moment. Very few of them are made as eloquently as in this video. We move from limited choice and impactful advertising to a rejection of advertising and then to a powerful final question for their Brand X: “Don’t you have something interesting to say”.

We find that most brands could and do have something interesting to say, people are interested in what happens inside a brand, in connecting with it and having a more public and human face to their interactions. For me this is really what we’re seeing through the changes the video highlights. There is much talk about a social media revolution (and we’ve written before about why that’s not quite the right word), whereas what we see here is that the shift is in terms of relationship. From advertiser to friend.

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Some more reading

• Social Media “Buzz”
• Expectations of Brand Continuity
• No wonder advertising doesn’t work
• Recommendations – 25% more influence than adverts in social networks