The new normal

I saw a media plan recently with YouTube as the only paid channel, to fully support a new content launch. It was a web film, the digital version of a luxuriously lengthy 90-second spot.

The transformation is now complete. YouTube is the new broadcast media, Netflix the new cable. Congratulations, marketing. We've found a way to transplant our exact same activities and strategies into the new media, no need to worry about interactivity, participation, people in-market, micro-moments or any of that sort of crap.

This type of thing obviously depresses me a little. Like we've found a comfort zone where we do just enough to be able to tick the boxes and feel like we're being integrated. A few pieces of extra content here, a few blogger engagement initiatives there and done! The old advertorial and press release, reincarnated.

I don't hope for the end of the old-school campaign. But amdist the planning for a mountain of a content spike, have we done the due diligence of checking how well our website is performing, how we're going to compete in search, what usage occasions we'd like to become part of, whether there is an opportunity here for loyalty? Are we considering pushing play on anything personalized, automated, smart? And in this particular instance (of a brand that will not be named) did they do the standard "Will they care? Will they share?" check?

In this abundantly awesome digital world where we can forge new connections without having to lean solely on emotion to build relationships, why do we insist on thinking about contained, isolated campaigns?

Clearly the old guard is still in the driver's seat. Am I allowed to use two idioms? I don't know if I can even really claim to be a member of the new generation. But I still can't wait to see what the new world of marketing looks like.