We live in the most exciting and disruptive communication era since the printing press. The introduction of the Internet to mainstream life in the 1990’s was the beginning of one of the most monumental changes in the way our society relates and shares information. It has provided the opportunity for creative disruption in many industries and advertising is right at the core.
Harvard Business School professor and disruption guru Clayton Christensen says that a disruption displaces an existing market, industry, or technology and produces something new and more efficient and worthwhile. It is at once destructive and creative.
Connectability
Social media is a catalyst for mobile and visionary businesses to partner with enterprising companies to drive forward the transformational process through which brands and consumers communicate. There are more tools than ever before in the hands of small businesses to interact with their consumers and build report. These mediums are not going away; in fact they are getting smarter and more business savvy day by day.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more know that to continue to grow, they need to provide businesses with a way to reach their consumers. After all, for most of these companies, the businesses are the ones willing to spend money to connect directly with their target audiences. And better yet, beyond just reaching them visually, we now have the opportunity to engage with our consumers through the entire buying cycle.
Accessibility
In today’s world, creative disruption has challenged the traditional notion that the public only knows what they need to know. Now transparency is demanded of brands. People want to know whom they are thinking about buying from or working with. If provided a choice, we will do business with people we know, like and trust. The Internet and social media provide consumers with accessibility to a company’s culture and personality. They will decide to do business based on how connected they believe they are and their “friends” appear to be. Often we see the online connect supersedes the face-to-face interaction.
Credibility
10-12 years ago people were reluctantly getting behind websites. The general consensus was that “I guess they aren’t going away. I suppose I need one.” Today, most of your consumers won’t consider you a viable company if they cannot find you on the web.
We are consistently hearing almost the same verbiage about social media and inbound marketing. “I guess it’s not going away. I guess I need to blog. I guess I need a Facebook page.” And it is true. Today’s consumers want to engage with a product or a service before, during and after the sales process. They want it to be easy and they want it to meet them where they are.
What does this mean for us as a marketing agency?
For Beacon, this means the continued opportunity to bring creative disruption to the traditional agency world. Yes, what we offer small business’ is indeed new, but more efficient and absolutely worthwhile. We believe that it can and will transform small businesses, the way they market, and how they interact with their consumers. We know for a fact that these small businesses will see their marketing dollars go farther than ever before. This creates space for growth, innovation, new jobs, and economic stimulation. Almost 80% of new jobs in our US economy over the past 30 years have been created by small business. So imagine how much we could bolster that number if the advertising ROI was increased.
The 2015 Vision
Do we believe one nimble company with vision can be a catalyst for creative disruption, for change in our community? Absolutely! Every business we get to help is a ripple that goes out and affects other businesses, other communities, other lives. And that is what makes me, makes us, excited to look forward at what 2015 has to offer. It is going to be a dynamic year for growth, change, and innovation!