Marketers, Don't Just Blindly Follow Latest Media Trends†

Why 'Because All the Cool Kids Are Doing It' Isn't a Good Excuse for Running to Nontraditional Media

Advertising Age, June 2, 2008 — One of the first messages ever posted to my profile on Facebook was from my 16-year-old niece in Nebraska. It said: "What are you doing here?" Even though they were just words on a screen, I could hear the tone in it. What are you doing here? In her mind, her 40-year-old uncle was intruding on a space she thought of as reserved for people more like her. And the thing is, I think she believes I'm pretty cool for an uncle. I've got some credibility: I live in New York, I'm in the ad business and she knows I'm associated with some pretty good brands. But despite this, she still asked the question. It wasn't exactly the reception I had in mind. And my response was equally bad: "Um, because everyone else is?"

In a media environment that is increasingly defined by the trendiness that afflicts a whole bunch of other categories, brands run the risk of looking like I must have looked to my niece when I joined Facebook and sent her a friend invite: an outsider trying to seem with it, unsure of why we're there or what we're supposed to do to become a valuable member of the community.