Old vs. New

David Meerman Scott has a couple of interesting posts on Web Ink Now:

In the old days, marketing simply meant advertising:

• Advertising needed to appeal to the masses.
• Advertising relied on interrupting people to pay attention to a "message".
• Advertising was one-way: company-to-consumer.
• Advertising was exclusively about selling products.
• Advertising was based on "campaigns" that had a limited life.
• "Creativity" was deemed the most important component to advertising.
• The agency winning advertising awards was more important than the client winning new customers.
• Advertising and PR were separate disciplines run by different people with separate goals, strategies and measurement criteria.

The Web, of course, is different. Instead of one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment that it is needed by a buyer.

In a separate post, he takes notice of the new publishing model: It is about delivering content when and where it is needed and branding you or your organization as a leader in the process.

Note the key word in the first phrase: content. While some may be romanced by the latest tools, technology and widgets, it's a strong content strategy that drives a successful campaign. Then and only then can the latest hoo-hah be used to bring the content to life.