Marketing 2.0: "The Less We Sell, The More People Want Us"

I thought the first podcast was good but the second one was even better - Marketing 2.0: Creative Destruction of Advertising - Part 2. Again Eric Vidal, advertising and new media leader at WebEx, talks with Chris Peterson, president and CEO of Chautauqua about Marketing 2.0. Here are my highlights:

Eric starts with his sound bite, "Marketing 2.0 is a shift that has dramatic implications on how Marketing get created, distributed, consumed and responded to."

Chris explains that these implications change the process, skill set and deliverables for marketers. For example there is a shift from a single message to many messages, copywriting to editorial writing and print media to innovative custom packages which he explains as "variations of advertorials."

The most valuable part of the podcast to me were the examples they provided:

• WebEx changed their online banner ads to lead with content including white papers, 3rd party content, videos and podcasts. This resulted in more clicks, more interaction - for longer and ultimately more leads. What they learned from this is, "the less we sell, the more people want us."
  
• A family entertainment park in Austin, TX wanted to increate their number of visitors. They created a 2-3 minute documentary about the park and had employees and customers talk about how much fun they have working and being there.The video was then used on their website as well as new content areas on local family entertainment sites. The friendly, open and honest format is really what got more traction.


• Microsoft took a key business white paper on hosted email services and turned it into a Wiki. They then hired a professional technology journalist (with full exposure) and went to IT message boards and blogs and invited people to edit it and ultimately help shape how Microsoft talked about services. Thousands of people came to the site and participated.

Final thoughts were about getting around naysayers and Chris' advice is, "'just do it and beg for forgiveness later." I have to admit that's been working for me!