This time really is different. When the dust settles on the Great Recession (or whatever historians eventually call it), the world of consumer markets, brand marketing and advertising agencies will have been utterly transformed. We are living through a great transition – from the Attention Economy to the Intention Economy; from ‘Macro Push’ to ‘Micro Pull’. And Facebook won’t even be part of it.
The world of advertising will be turned upside down – or the other way round. Instead of acting as agents between brands and their consumers, agencies will act as agents between consumers and their brands. Fortunes will be made (and some lost). If your business model isn’t working, it won’t.
The text of a recent talk by Gerard O’Neill to the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) is now available here.