Advertising Firework, Social Bonfire pt II

A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post on why if advertising was a firework, social media was a bonfire. 

A lot of people liked it (in PHD & beyond) and found it a really helpful way to think about, or explain to other people, the differences between the world of campaigning, mass media advertising, and the new social landscape.

So I've been improving it and have written this, so thought I'd share it here too...

Advertising Fireworks, Social Bonfires

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(Thanks to Simon, David, Beth, Chris, Dan, Mat & Vijay for chipping in with excellent thoughts)

Comments

[Daniel Goodall]

Love it!

This analogy just *works*.

Roll on November 5th!

[Joakim Vars Nilsen]

John, I truly like your work here. But why do you differ between social media and advertising?

[John V Willshire]

Thanks Dan, and thanks for chipping in too.

And thanks Joakim, too. I differentiate between the two because 'advertising' has come to mean an instant burst of 'push' messaging that is fundamentally 'campaignable'; you know when it starts, ends, and can estimate what the increase in affect will be during the time it's around.

'Social Media' on the other hand is different... By 'Social Media' I mean companies connecting to people at a 'social level', as friends might. Conversation, generousity, fun, sharing, helpful things.

It is fundamentally different from advertising in that you can't 'campaign' it in the same way. You can't book in two weeks of high community engagement starting next Monday, and expect to have a fully fledged community two weeks later.

So you have to think differently about the two approaches, you can't just throw advertising at social networks and expect it to build a community for you

[Mat Riches]

Just remembered a great poem by Simon Armitage that might help..it's called Five Eleven Ninety Nine, I think it's at the end of a collection called Dead Sea Poems...It's all about an end of the century Bonfire where people bring all sorts of things to burn, I guess it can be about communities as well, although I've only just realised it...I can't fin it online, but I will gladly lend you my copy if you are interested

[Arto Joensuu]

Great presentation and awesome analogy. I really like the notion of describing social media as a bonfire. I don't know if you knew about this, but in Finland, there's a saying that describes unison/team work in a manner that links quite nicely to your bonfire thinking. It goes something like this: "let's all blow onto the same piece of charcoal". In essence, it just refers to the fact that building a fire takes time and needs the "air" to be channeled to the right place in order to help it light up.

[Joakim Vars Nilsen]

John, thanks for replying. I totally agree with that. But I see it all as marketing. And I see Social Media as a part of the advertising mix that most companies will benefit from implementing in their marketing efforts to increase ROI and ROE.

[Matt Sadler]

Lovely stuff. Good work dude.

[Le'Nise Brothers]

This is great, Willsh. Also love the implicit health and safety reminders throughout!

[John V Willshire]

Wooah, comment tastic... in reverse...

Le'Nise, Matt, thank you very much indeed :)

Joakim - totally, it's all marketing, spot on. It's just pointing out why using advertising skills, principles et al in social media is inappropriate, because it's different.

Arto - that's BRILLIANT, I love that... I shall be saying "let's all blow onto the same piece of charcoal" in meetings all this month :)

Mat - would love to see that... send me/point me to it when you can find it. And I may well post it up as part three :)

[eskimon]

Love it. As other comments point out, this is an analogy that everyone seems to understand. Thanks for sharing the ready-made slides too!

[neilperkin]

Great analogy John. Funnily enough, just written a post on this very subject too...

[John V Willshire]

thanks fella, and thanks for your input too :)

[Pete]

Excellent analogy, I shall have to use that!

The slides perfectly explain the differences between how the two should be approached.

I can think of quite a few people that could do with seeing this..

Thanks for posting it.

[John V Willshire]

Pete; you're very welcome, thanks for popping in :)

[Bethan]

Hey - I love where you've taken this idea; it's a great analogy - and has the potential to be a really BIG idea! Would be interesting to take it further perhaps and add in a bit of grubby direct marketing....

[Robin Grant, We Are Social]

Hey John - awesome, as usual...

:)

[John V Willshire]

Thanks Robin :)

Bethan... is direct perhaps a catherine wheel, thanks to it's 'nailed on' targeting? ;)

[Matt Nelson]

Nothing insightful to add. Just a simple thank you.

[John V Willshire]

Thanks Matt, glad you like :)

[Mat Riches]

I don't know if I am pointing out the bleeding obvious, but it occured to me this morning that we have been crowding around bonfires a lot longer than we have been oooh-ing at these relative johnny-come-lately firework things...and to mix metaphors for a while isn't that why social is taking off, it's the communicating around a point, it's what we have always done...

[Sean Meikle]

An excellent analogy. I think in some cases though, we just need to be careful not to confuse our bonfires with what are actually sparklers (sorry, another analogy). This seems to be more apparent (in my experience) when bringing specific creative executions to life on social media. Nice to play with for a while, your mates want a go too, but ultimately they burn out quickly. Bonfires by their nature can be kept going ad infinitum with enough interest and people turning up, chucking on wood. If you're led by a specific creative execution, this by its nature moves on. Bonfires built around brand truths or as an integral part of the comms strategy are not constrained by the current creative execution and have at least the opportunity to grow beyond the length of the current campaign. Both approaches are valid, of course - but the latter avoids the simple 'amplification of the creative' approach, and hopefully gets us media winners up at the top-table a lot earlier in the whole process.

[John V Willshire]

Nice build... sparklers are 'fireworks for the ordinary punter', aren't they? Everyone there can 'have a go', they're dealt out by the party organiser, but they behave like 'fireworks'... bright start, quick finish.

So I guess a lot of companies who still beholden to the ideas of quick 'campaigns' will approach the 'social' side using the 'sparkler' approach... 'let's give people a controlled firework to play with themselves'.

Nice short term effects... but no long term commitment.

[aj-willsh(ire)]

It's funny how the big ones that you spend the most on are usually the most disappointing.

But where's the mention of the hot soup? People who can't get near the bonfire need warming too...