Advertising is DEAD

At least advertising as we know it. One of the things I like most about what we do here is the ability to look at the big picture - perchance to dream really big. Today was one of the days when big thoughts started metamorphizing into big actions.

I have been reading about the closure of Pontiac's Motorati Island in Second Life - closed not because the development was unsuccessful. Rather it was closed because that segment of that advertising campaign ended. This is what kicked of the BIG THOUGHTS.

Advertisers push advertising on consumers - they interrupt their television viewing, add wasted pages to magazines and newspapers and disrupt radio programming. They force product messages onto the consumer hoping that if they throw enough at them something may stick.

This is not how a relationship works. Advertisers want the consumers money. Oh yes, they "sell" products in exchange for our money - but all too often the product is pushed on the consumer.

Advertising as we know it is a combination of showmanship, creative trickery, presentation and simple appeal to our avarice. All of it pushed on the consumer.

This one sided relationship is heading for divorce - we already see the signs. Newspapers are closing down for lack of revenue, TV ads are routinely beeped over or Tivo'd into oblivion and podcasts, Ipods and sattelite radio is decimating radio advertising. A recent Yankleovitch study shows that only 25% of US consumers trust ANY form of conventional advertising.

So what is the BIG THOUGHT?

Like any relationship, advertisers need to learn a bit of give and take. They need to learn to be good corporate citizens, good community builders. We hear the rumblings of this need in terms like "social marketing" an "Long tail marketing".

The time has come to move to the next generation of advertising - in fact beyond advertising. The time has come for corporations to build relationships with consumers - but this time really mean it, not just say that they want to build relationships but start doing it.

Shelve the short term strategists, tell the myopic bottom line bean counters to look up and shake a potential new customers hand and get to know them. Get the fancy MBA business managers to stop crunching numbers and start conversing with consumers. Give back to the community and start creating a mutually advantageous future.

The extrusion of this BIG THOUGHT is the role of Simuality in this new post advertising world. We are no longer second life developers or virtual world consultants - we are community makers, relationship councillors and marriage brokers.

Simuality will go back in time to create a bright new future, blending technology with the old concept of community. Using Second Life and other Virtual Worlds, combined with new Internet methadologies and technologies, we will work with corporations to create electronic based (but not limited) communities that focus on the creation of a mutually beneficial relationship between corporation, product and consumer in a harmonius and gowing community relationship that encapsulates the best elements of give and take.

We have already built two strong communities that have outlined our new philosophy and welcome you to visit them at www.avatrait.com (if you love art) and www.slmannequin.com (if you are into fashion).