Everything's an ad

Chalk bots, live-tweeting badgers, dolls that get sunburnt, vending machines that need hugs, drones that deliver beer and real-life care bears.

We don't just make ads anymore. We make everything. What a time to be a creative! What a time to be in advertising!

© Nopporn Suntorn – 123RF.com

Everything is a f*$#ing ad! And it's awesome!

Make your product relevant and therefore valuable in the lives of consumers. That's always been the goal, but the way brands are behaving now makes it easier to get closer to consumers than ever before.

And because these brands are operating outside of conventional channels, they get to avoid all the issues associated with them. Namely the fact that they are extremely expensive, very cluttered and highly regulated.

In developing markets, established channels are often controlled by monopolies; there may be a lack of infrastructure to support and service them correctly; they might not reach people in far-lying areas at all: and in some cases, there might not even be enough available inventory as brands pile in to grab their share of new markets and target audiences.

Working in new ways negates all these old problems.

Yup. I hear you. Conventional channels still have a role to play. They build trust for brands. They create awareness. Maybe a short code or two here and there for good measure, but the real market-shifting ideas are going to be the ones that place the product slap-bang in the heart of relevance to the consumer. Once you have shown somebody a product benefit in an interactive, tangible and real way, it is going to be very hard for any other brand to take them away from you.

I'd like to see a billboard teach a child why sunblock is important while at the same time distracting the toddler for long enough to let a parent apply actual sunblock.

So let's forget channel for a while. There are people who can think about that for you. And we can all churn out work to satisfy those needs in our sleep. We've been doing it for decades.

Right now is a time for new ideas. A time for new ways of doing things. It's a great time.

Let's rather focus on the products and the people that use them. Let's find real relevance to find new ways to bring them together. And let's bring some really positive change into their lives while doing so.

And if you get it right, the reach will be significantly more for significantly less.

The world is your channel. Have fun out there.