AdAge left out a key criteria in their overview of mainstream vs. cutting edge advertising...

"While marketing prognosticators and technophiles rush into the future, raving about the next big content delivery system or ad model, the fact is most Americans -- notably adults with steady incomes -- still get their content the old-fashioned way."

I agree, but how many of the key influencers are still doing this, but the bleeding edgers, trendwatchers, trendsetters, etc. habits are changing...  you can't argue that.  You don't have to reach everyone on the first try.. .you have to reach the right people... the people that other people want to be like.  These are the people that are always trying stuff first and get social capital for that.  There was a time horse and buggy sales were still strong, too, you know.  If you're not adopting to new technologies, you're going to find yourself far behind very soon.

I mean, seriously, who would you rather market to, my 88 year old Nana, or her 27 year old RSS enabled grandson who she knows is cool and wants to be associated with.  :)

Our Jeep Compass Karaoke Site won Adobe's Site of the Day today.    I can't really sing, but if anyone sends me their performances, I'll be happy to post them!  Charlie@oddcast.com

So Mike Oliver posted on my post on MeVertising, and made a good comment on it, so now I'm reposting something from his repost... 

"A brand is now only as influential as its consumers."

Brilliant.

When I first met with Oddcast, and even before that, I was starting to get the sense that the idea that "markets were conversations" was being taken further.  Lines were being blurred.  Blogging and other user generated media brought the brands down from the ivory towers to the people, even if they came kicking and screaming.  They were ours.

When the brands woke up from being dazed, it seemed that they began to like us... to want to get closer to us.  They wanted to be in our networks, to be friends with us.

At first, I started calling this phenomenon "Brand Association."  The things I buy wanted to be closer to me. 

Then I realized that, even more than that, they wanted to be me, and me to be them...   and to a large extent, I am them.  I don't drink, so when I'm out at bars, I'm Sprite guy.  Its become a running joke, but ask any of my friends who they think of when they see a Sprite, its probably me.  I am a Mustang and Jamba Juice, and Macy's, too.   When I bring these brands with me online through Flickr pics of the car or moblogging from Jamba Juice, what it really is is "Brand Expression."  I am self identifying with a number of brands.  I have a relationship with brands that I am committing a part of myself to.

Henry Jenkins covers this phenomenon in his new book and new blog:

"I wanted to suggest the various ways that people are trying to attach value to emotion in the new media economy...the ways that product placements sought to connect the emotions associate with entertainment onto products embedded within that story.

Some aspects of what I am calling affective economics are deeply embedded in current advertising practice, referred to by the various terms Bogost identifies ("lifestyle marketing," "associative advertising," "relationship marketing," etc.) ...

I am convinced that this shift represents the best means we have of getting media producers to reassess their relationship to their consumers and that seems to be key to the long term viability of participatory culture...companies...will have an economic interest in opening themselves up to greater participation from their consumers...."

Some aspects of this, as Henry points out, are not totally new.  We've always had lifestyle marketing... but something about this new trend... this new closeness, where brands are opening up and becoming vulnerable to form a stronger tie to consumers... it all seems a bit different.

When I was at USV, digital media and marketing stuff generally went into my VC & Technology category, but I think I'm in a new playing field now...  and so I'm going to start categorizing it accordingly.

But none of the terms out there are quite as direct as I'd like... so I've come up with something that says exactly what I feel this is...  MeVertising.  Its a blurring between my own identity, brand association, ad consumption, expression, etc.   

Its buying the Nike t-shirt.  In that scenario, who is advertising what?

• Is Nike advertising on me, literally?
• Am I advertising that I subscribe to the Nike lifestyle, whatever that is?
• Am I advertising that I am a sophisticated t-shirt buyer?

And I don't even want to go into what that does to the economics of the whole thing...

So, over the course of the future of this blog, I will be doing a lot of MeVertising posting, tagging things MeVertising in del.icio.us and Technorati.  Feel free to do the same and join me in the exploration.