Alternate media. Traditional media. That both marketers and agencies refer to any media that falls outside the realms of TV, print, and outdoor as ‘alternative’ suggests at best an inward looking and dangerous perspective.
Q: Alternative to whom?
Q: Unconventional by whose standards and whose behaviour?
The pressing reality for most brands today is that product differentiation can be erased overnight and brand messaging easily duplicated. But the creation of purpose driven acts that deliver layers of the brand experience may be a last source of differentiation. What many call ‘alternative’ media today - and what I might call a brand act - has in been in play since 2nd century B.C. The circus maximus was buzz marketing, conversation creation and stunt writ large for brand Rome. The first known example of guerrilla marketing is to found in Ephesus (modern day turkey) in the form of graffiti advertising a brothel. Place based media in the form of architecture has at its best, implied much more than mere form as in the case of Beijing: Contemporary Superpower. Alternate media…how about a conversation about context as a media in and of itself.
You forgot to mention word of mouth advertising, I don't think that would be considered 'alternative', do you? That is actually one of the best and most trustworthy forms of advertising for most consumers.
I agree that product differentiation is easy to erase, and that purpose driven acts are the way to differentiate a brand to attract and pull people in.
Posted by: Dropship Diva | June 09, 2009 at 01:09 AM