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Social Objects and Marketing

I think it’s fair to say that most people in the marketing world agree that our ability to buy people’s attention is waning.  Feverish predictions about the collapse of the entertainment and news industries are overblown, but the trends are clear: it is much harder today to find a truly captive audience than it has been at any other point since the advent of radio.  And it’s going to get even more difficult from here.

This is great news.  It will force marketers to take more risks and push for more inspired communications.

I believe that one of the vehicles positioned to grow exponentially with this shift is the “social object”.  Hugh Macleod has written a great deal about social objects.  He defines them as “the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else”.  Examples: bowling, phones, Star Wars, Saul Bellow, babies.  

The definition alone provides insight on human interaction, but what I find most exciting is the potential for social objects to be harnessed for marketing purposes.  They already are, but Hugh believes that as our ability to buy people’s attention continues to wane, social objects will become the most effective medium for branded communications.  Well, I think he believes that this has already happened.  But if today’s preferred options cease to be attractive, social objects could become a much more important tactic for marketers.

Hugh’s been talking about this for years, but that doesn’t mean his predictions were too optimistic.  Changes in technology move at a mile a minute, but changes in the foundations of culture move at an inch a year, if that.  We’ll still be watching ads on TV three years from now, but our children will likely be exposed to brands by items, events, and entertainment more often than ads.

Oh, and feel free to turn this post into a social object by passing it along to a friend.