The Marketing Relevance Imperative

Peter DeLegge claims that confronting an ad-averse audience, how have major advertisers and ad agencies responded?

With more unwelcome, and in some cases underhanded, tactics – pandering ads, manipulative word-of-mouth campaigns, contracts that require a publisher to pull their ads if the publication prints a negative editorial about them...

As Marketers, we’re all in the same boat: how do you get heard above the din?
Where do you go,
What do you do, when the volume’s already at maximum 10?
Well, if you have the clout – and believe “He who succeeds shouts the loudest” – you:

- Run something shocking at a moment of maximum exposure,

- Try to control (i.e., threaten) the presumably impartial media,

- Claim it’s in all the service of branding.

Is that all ethical?

In my opinion no. We are ALL RESPONSIBLE for setting the rules of the game.
We cannot avoid to be legacy marketers. After all, what counts most is trust and rapport that you incorporate in your buyer - seller relationship. This is primarily one of the reasons that transactional type of Marketing is long overdue.