The Adnostic

Our parents lived in a simple world and the advertising reflected this. They listened or watched their favorite entertainment programs and gave their attention to the program's sponsor in return. Those were the days. A clear exchange of value.

In the years that passed, the broadcast landscape became much more complex and consumers were given tools to avoid the increased amounts of commercials inserted into their favorite programs - remote controls, cable channels, radio scanning buttons, DVRs - and they used these devices with great glee. Who could blame them? The exchange of value had stopped flowing in their favor and they knew it.

As attention and media channels become more fragmented, consumer attention becomes harder to get and therefore more valuable. The old tricks just aren't cutting it anymore. People are too aware of what their time is worth and a crappy sitcom in exchange for crappy 30 second commercial is the equivalent of 'giving the milk away for free.' That trade holds no value for either party, especially when one party is all too capable of changing the channel until the commercial break is over, recording it and fast forwarding through the unwanted content, or even doing a little covert downloading. That is the reality of advertising in a world of media savvy consumers.

Advertisers are beginning to find better ways to get our attention. The buzzword is engagement, which is a fairly nebulous term. I prefer to think of it in simpler terms - a return to a true exchange of value. Consumers are more apt to listen to and welcome your message when you give them something of equal value in exchange. Something funny, something useful, something beautiful, something that increases their knowledge in meaningful ways, something targeted to a person who will find the message and method of delivery to be of personal significance.

Jones Soda is an example of a beverage company that is giving social networking communities something they find worthy of their attention and possibly even the holy grail of social marketing - public allegiance. Jones is giving MySpace users the gift of well-designed customizable pages. In an online galaxy filled with fugly user profiles what could be more useful than the ability to stand out through good HTML/CSS? It's that kind of thinking that sets a brand up for success in a world of finicky and fickle consumers.

I'm always cautious when a brand wants to enter a new medium. I sometimes wonder if they actually think that the fact that they are there and that they are first is somehow enough to make the venture successful. Brands would likely increase their chances for success in a new advertising venture if they took a hard look at the exchange of value between brand and consumer during that potential interaction and evaluated the balance of trade.

[Inspired by Wired News: Big Biz Buddies Up to Gen Y and an ongoing debate with my boss]