Wall Street talks about a Basket of Goods. The UN talks about a basket of Currencies. What would Madison Avenue say when Main Street coverts your baskets of goods with their basket of social currencies?
Here is a simple business plan that will screw everything up.
Suppose that a pool of advertisers in a single industry (yup, competitors) all throw 10% of their advertising budget into a basket. Now, suppose that money is distributed among a basket of the top 10% most active social media mavens (bloggers) based on their rankings related to the affinity segment.
For example, all teen fashion designers and outlets would toss 10% of their ad budget into a basket. The money would be distributed to the top 10% of teen fashion bloggers for doing exactly what they are going to do anyway – communicate their lifestyle experiences in their galaxy of communities.
What does this achieve?
1. If your product sucks, you’ll know why.
2. If your competitor rocks, you’ll know why.
3. Your brand is disseminated more efficiently than advertising
4. You are supporting the community that serves you.
5. People who are good at community organizing can earn a living doing it – that’s good for communities and your brand image.
6. Beats the Payola Laws because the payer can only pull their money from the basket – not any single payee. Pulling out would not send a good message oh, no, no, no
7. Bogus Bloggers can’t beat the rankings
8. a 300 Billion dollar per year advertising industry with a 95% failure rate can be bypassed by GOOD products – profit center anyone?
9. Designers create products in response to Social Priorities not Wall Street priorities.
10. You’ll create a Millions of young, proactive, innovative entrepreneurs too busy to watch traditional media anyway.
Oh sure, you’ll hear a desperate whine from Madison Avenue – That’s all free advertising – as a bulldozer moves the wrong way down a ONE WAY street.
