It would be easy to toss off this Renegade video which espouses its belief marketing should be a service to consumers rather than an intrusive method to get people to buy stuff. It’s not new and it’s been voiced by many an agency eager to illustrate they know marketing has to engage, enable conversation, provide benefit, offer participatory experiences and provide a service that goes beyond an excuse simply to sell product.
Yes, your eyes are rolling as you read this but what Renegade is saying nicely encapsulates the swirl of discussion the industry has engaged in regarding the socialization of media and what that means for marketers who, yes, still need to get stuff off the shelfs and into people’s hands. However, the “buy this because it’s better/cheaper/faster” method just isn’t working so well anymore.
Certainly the desire people might have to “have a conversation” with a brand is debatable but it’s clear they do want to have a voice and they want that voice to be heard and acted upon. And, for it to be much more than just lip service. It would seem that’s what Renegade is striving for in the work it does for its clients.
So, feel free to toss it of as yet another display of agency blather or give it a watch and then think. Have you truly changed the way you are marketing? Have you adjusted to the recent sea change in media usage patterns? Have you come to terms with the fact the way you’ve done business in the past is simply not going to work any longer no matter how much you want to profit from the creation of what you think will assuredly be a Cannes winning :30?
Seriously. We can do better. We have to.
