In a speech at an advertising conference today, Jim Stengel, P&G marketing chief (and therefore Most Important Guy in the Room) laid down the gauntlet.
“All marketing should be permission marketing. When we think of permission-based marketing, most of us think about opt-in online newsletters. We really need to expand this mentality to all aspects of marketing. … For each element of the marketing mix, we should ask ourselves, ‘Would consumers choose to look at or listen to this,’ and let that be the benchmark.”
Stengel had stinging words for traditional advertising: “This is a $450 billion dollar global industry and we’re all making decisions with less data and discipline than we apply to $100,000 decisions in other aspects of our businesses.”
Ad Age reports.
I would like to think in discussing “opt-in” marketing, Jim Stengel is referring directly to the new capabilities of the tech savvy 14-24 year old marketing segment. This group is all about tuning in to what they want, when they want it, and where they want it. PVRs, Internet, MP3 players etc have allowed this generation a multitude of options to entertain themselves. Will this pull versus push style last and what does this mean for branded content? Specifically, how can advertisers who are so easily tuned out, create a message that this group pulls in?