The marketing walls are crumbling

Everyone loves to talk about convergence. Well nowhere is this more true than in the world of marketing. We've finally reached a point where ideas truly transcend disciplines. Marketers have long said that ideas were central to what they did and used jargon like "neutral", "holistic", "integrated" and "agnostic" to suggest they thought about the bigger picture and the power of a big idea rather than their own discipline, agency, turf or P&L. But whilst ideas were always front and centre, they were always defined by the discipline from which they came and through which they would be primarily executed.

Well no more (at long last). The rampant proliferation of social technology has changed the way marketers have to operate. Influence has been democratised. Communications has become conversational. No longer are there disciplines in charge of certain types of ideas. No more are there there certain types of agency in charge of the ideation process or the ownership of "the Big idea". Now, there are just smart people. People from all walks of life, all disciplinary persuasions, who understand better than the next guy or girl what a brand needs to achieve and is capable of creating an idea big, engaging, relevant and simple enough to achieve just that very thing. It's not rocket science, but it took a long time for the marketing industry to catch on.

Don't believe me? Check this campaign out from Publicis, a historically traditional advertising agency...

Meet iHobo...the world’s first interactive homeless person. Developed for Depaul, the UK homeless charity, the app was designed to highlight the plight of homeless people to a younger audience. The app became a highly controversial sensation – you effectively adopt a digital homeless tamagotchi who you have to care for whenever he or she demands – day or night. A modern equivalent of walking around with a fake baby, it was up to you whether this person ate food and slept in warmth, or turned to drugs and sold their sleeping bag if you ignored them...ultimately whether they lived or died. The app smashed expectations becoming the UK’s most downloaded free app within five days, generating 20,000 downloads a day and now having been downloaded 500,000 times. It created an iPhone first by circumventing Apple restrictions and delivering in-app donation capabilities, generating seven times more donations than any previous campaign run by the charity.

You can argue this is an ad of sorts if you like. But it couldn't be further from a 30 second spot if it tried. Content-based, socially driven, virally strong, an experiential launch, explosive media coverage and a commercial goldmine...it's a great example of the "new big idea" in our world without walls.

http://p-showcase.com/ihobo/