Technology: Friend or Foe?

Have you recently invested in an online platform that has dynamic applications ensuring a rich user experience?
If you've seen Fun with Dick and Jane think about the 3 minute sales pitch that Dick uses. Chalked full of buzz words, he may be selling air.
Because Barefoot engages highly interactive strategies for online marketing, we are always looking for innovations. We hear the sales pitch and think -- WOW, there's something there. But after digging a little deeper we discover, well, air.
I looked up web providers who were selling a "dynamic" experience. You may have heard that word bandied about. I discovered that for $500 I could purchase a dynamic web site. Some of you reading this probably wish you had purchased that software because you paid a lot more for your dynamic experience.
Of course, those dynamic web sites were simple templates with some ability to content manage, usually online. (One does wonder how else one would manage an online tool, but I may too old to understand the complexities of the online world).
I am also intrigued by the many social media applications -- especially in fund raising. As if social media will suddenly revolutionize the hard work of raising funds. Engaging social media is simply today's version of my mother who volunteered for the Cancer Society and went door to door to gather money for a worthy cause. With social media we can open doors that are further afield, but it's still a volunteer activity that will render low results (with the exception of high profile, media supported emergencies).
Technology doesn't change foundational marketing intelligence.

While no one can confirm....

How often have I read that in regards to social marketing?
How many businesses have increased their profit margins significantly by their investment into Facebook? Why is it that Fortune 500 companies are slow to adopt social networking tools?
It's hard to understand the full impact of social networking -- just like it's hard to estimate the impact of the influence of friends on purchase choices.
So let's admit it.
In an age when tracking is the most critical component of choosing marketing media effective advertising still requires guts.
That's why we need to imagine.
Imagine the difference when you use all the tools in the most effective way for your business. The brand leaders are already doing it. They are acknowledging that the world as the Admen of the 60's knew it is changing.
Walmart and P&G is talking about producing a movie as a part of their marketing package. Smart retailers are adding web empowered kiosks within their stores so that customers can shop better right in the store, choosing a digital assistant rather than a teen in a red polo shirt. Others are using digital screens throughout the stores for real time sales information, putting to bed the muffled PA service.
I spoke with a client this morning. They need a web site. When I asked what they wanted their clients to do on their web site the silence bounced off of the padded chairs. No idea.
So we began to prod.
It turns out that their clients have really amazing engagement intersections that we discovered after imaging a web site that was a little more innovative. But we had to stop and ask the question.
They came to us because they need a web site -- everyone needs a web site. You can purchase a web site for $500. BUT if you want an effective, marketing focused, engagement oriented web site you have to stop and think before you enter the copy from your most recent brochure into the appropriate content managed boxes.
We live in exciting times... the world is changing. We get to influence that change.