So predictable. The ad industry turns on the anti-30-second-commercial guy, Joseph Jaffe, because he is repositioning the company Crayon after several key people departed. In case you hadn’t heard of it, Crayon was the new marketing agency launched in a new media environment, Second Life, less than a year ago.
If you’ve read Jaffe’s book, listened to his podcasts or read his blog, you’ll know that he –an ex agency guy– is Madison Avenue’s worst nightmare. Or if I may rephrase it, Old-Madison Avenue’s nightmare. Indeed, many agencies have embraced new media and new marketing, but for many, new media is still a slide they add on at the end of their presentation. (“vlogs? short codes? What’s that?”)
No mater what Crayon does, you have to agree that this “shape shifter” (their term) has been a pace-setter /embarrassment / thorn in the side / to an industry slow to adapt to new new consumer behaviors & motivations. No different from how Richard Branson pushed a lot of buttons and upset a lot of “industry” apple carts, Jaffe is always challenging the way things have been done.
Conversational marketing is something Jaffe’s upcoming book will be all about. In fact he did a survey earlier this year on just that topic. Critics of this kind of marketing and advertising are probably disturbed by all of this. They are quick to call his repositioning a “fall from grace.”
But there was some vindication last week. AdAge ran a page-one story (“Old-world media starts to feel the pain“) on the shift away from traditional media to conversational marketing.
But there’s something else going on that has nothing to do with the natural rhythms of booms and busts or the fortunes of Madison Avenue’s biggest clients. Simply put, American companies are shifting more and more marketing dollars out of paid media. You see it happening every day as marketers—smart ones, at least—talk about things such as word-of-mouth and conversational marketing…
Did they just notice? Companies have been talking about these ‘things’ –and taking their money with them– for many years now. Jaffe was been of the first to chronicle that shift.
Hoipolloireport 
Angelo, you’re late! The hype around Web 2.0 is all but discounted. Hell, even one of the key authors of the seminal “Cluetrain Manifesto,” has recanted. Weinberger was recently quoted as saying, “Markets are conversations but conversations don’t need marketing.”
In that light, Jaffe and the myriad of those like him are petty snake oil hacks preying on dupes who long to belong to something/anything that even hints at empowerment and/or importance. Pathetic.
What does he have to do before you take him off that pedestal, $5 lap dances? Just wait.
Amanda Chapel
Managing Editor
Strumpette
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Thanks for the comment. I disagree on the snake oil part. If you’ve been paying attention to what he had been saying even before his book, it was more in the line of educating people to stop thinking of marketing as the good old 4Ps, and pay attention to the audience. Sure Cluetrain started the process, and but it took an agency guy to put it into real world context.
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Do these nay-sayers think that ignoring social media will make it just go away? How can they not want to know what people are saying about their company and products online, much less not want to engage with them? I don’t know how much “danger” traditional media is in, but having an online, interactive presence with your consumers and taking into account what they think is just too valuable to ignore.
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Angelo: I recognize that you disagree with the snake oil part. That’s unfortunate.
Bottom line: it is snake oil as it is NOT real. Conversational Marketing is a façade… and a thin one at that. You are ignoring fundamental issues that make for problems in your belief system. That’s what hype is all about. You believe it and Jaffe because you think it empowers you. Ironically, populism and movements like it don’t empower anyone. It only creates new hierarchies, but ones rooted in shit; ones where their leaders hook for camera, phones, computers and such.
Megan: No, we don’t think the social media fad will go away anymore than we think porn will go away.
With regard to paying attention to customers, we’ve always listened to customers variously… and smartly. We don’t listen to mobs just because there are lots of ’em and they’re loud.
Lastly, lines like “having an online, interactive presence with your consumers and taking into account what they think is just too valuable to ignore,” is ABSOLUTELY induced by overindulging in the snake oil. It’s total unadulterated crap.
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So, according to this line of thinking, whenever something different comes along, and we ignore so-called “fundamental issues,” we subscribe to hype.
By the same token, why not brush off globalization because of the hype that ensued with Thomas Friedman’s flat-world theory? He didn’t say anything radically new, but articulated it better. Does that make him a huckster? And is the notion of the Long Tail also a bunch of hooey because it Chris Anderson’s premise butts up against the fundamental belief system of previous marketing regimes and empowers us?
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Ignoring fundamentals is hype by definition. Angelo, I do whole heartedly believe you’re a duck. But if I had to bet, I’d likely reserve judgment until I was fully appraised of the fundamentals. Bottom line: I am aware you’re misguided but there’s in all likelihood, there are reasons why.
With regard to why Jaffe is a huckster, it’s because he pimps himself out for cameras, computers, phones and such.
Lastly, with regard to whether Anderson’s Long Tail is a “bunch of hooey,” yes, indeed it is.
– Amanda
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Come on. This whole “thorn in the side” thing is a total false opposition. Who are these “naysayers” exactly? All the big agencies are now taking social media (call it what you will) very seriously. Even Maurice Levy (Publicis) is on the bandwagon. Jonah Bloom’s post – which started all this – was tinged with personal dislike (I can’t comment on that) but if you read it, what he is railing against is NOT the new media model but Jaffe’s writing (which was terrible). That said, Bloom’s post must have struck a chord with the social media community, because most of the criticism of Crayon came from within the blogosphere. The story was pretty much ignored by MSM and “Madison Avenue”. There’s no doubt Jaffe knows a lot about, and is a great evangelist for the “new way”. He is far from alone though, and I am amazed you credit him with “chronicling the shift” (how many blogs do you read??) I genuinely wish Crayon well, but for them to succeed he will have to do a much better job of demsonstrating to clients (which he apparently doesn’t have any of at the moment) how he can transform their marketing.
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Let me clarify. I don’t subscribe to the entire Crayon mantra, as much as I am not completely convinced by the advertising-is-dead theories. But when I mentioned ‘chronicling’ because of the consistency of his stand via blog, book, podcast.
As for naysayers, Bob Garfield does a better job at (dare I say) chronicling this (Here: http://adage.com/article?article_id=115712 ) Scroll down some 28 graphs to where he quotes the Sir. Martins of this world. I realize that Ms. Chapel may also deem this “Chaos” scenario,” and especially “The consumer is in control” parts hype, too.
BTW naysayers was Megan’s reference, and I did acknowledge that many agencies have responded to the shift. Maybe I will invite Jaffe to join the conversation here, as I am sure he will. Let’s broaden this discussion instead of wasting readers’ time with childish name calling.
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