David Armano makes really nice graphics to support his points. But what you are about to read is heresy to old schoolers.
“The Big Idea” is still very much alive and well–but it’s less relevant than it’s ever been. Especially big ideas that start with a top down broadcast messages first. This is campaign thinking in it’s finest and does not translate directly in a fragmented 2.0 world. Marketers are going to need to diversify how we think, which means supporting both big ideas and lots of “big-little ideas” that can thrive in the niches. That’s one of the biggest challenges marketers now face. Thinking in niche–the internet thrives on it.
Armano clearly understands how the Web works. The problem is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Mass marketers, for the most part, could care less about appealing to a niche; hence the term mass marketing.
What Armano and many others are trying to say is mass marketers need to change their ways if they want to be successful in the digital space. What fewer people are saying (out loud) is this: Maybe mass marketers ought to leave the Web alone.
