As online marketing specialists we often contrast ourselves with those in the traditional world, summarizing the differences with notions of a ‘different mindset’ – but what does that mean really? A focus on ROI, accountability, commercial imperatives, interactivity, engagement, experience, etc. are all terms that quickly come to mind but really, at a high level, what makes our mindset different is an approach to marketing based upon consumer service, not consumer solicitation.

Considering that we are each exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of commercial messages each day, all marketers are challenged with making attention-grabbing impressions that are also persuasive. A formidable task that drives the hiring and firing of agencies every day, and made even more difficult with continued media fragmentation and the multitasking media consumption habits of today’s consumers. It’s no wonder marketers are increasingly concerned about their traditional agency’s ability to keep pace. But with a different perspective, or perhaps mindset, one might see that this increasingly fragmented and multitasked collision of media and consumer behavior is where the future of marketing opportunity lies.

No single channel illustrates this challenge/opportunity moreso than the Internet where we are each exposed to no less than two, and often many more, commercial messages on each page-load. Online, the battle for attention is at its most extreme and our understanding of what is or is not effective is at its deepest. Further, the intersection of effectiveness and cost efficiency, identified through online technology, prioritizes the channels that marketers now find most important as illustrated in this chart:

It’s also quite interesting to note that many of these most important advertising tactics are also very service oriented. The correlation between effectiveness and importance is clear but perhaps, with a different mindset, the correlation between consumer service and effectiveness is equally so.

Service as we generally think of it is almost exclusively focused on front line staff while advertising’s remit is primarily solicitation. But in the age of on-demand access to entertainment and information in a vastly fragmented media landscape with multitasking consumers, service is the key to gaining not only attention but authority, and ultimately conversion and loyalty.

So who’s doing this well? Here are a couple good examples:
Dove’s Evolution
Avis’ wetryharder.co.uk
Nuts about Southwest