• The Guardian , Thursday, June 21, 2012 9:45 AM

It's no longer the role of advertising to put lipstick on a pig – truth is the future of successful marketing, says blogger Sue Unerman, chief strategy officer at Mediacom. She writes that finding a way to spin the truth or to distract from it was good agency practice in the old media paradigm when "the main broadcasting voice to the consumer was advertising-led and therefore controllable." But now, she notes, brand image is based as much on digital conversations of consumers. "It is hopeless to rely on advertising spin or to talk down to the consumer...if what brands are telling the consumer doesn't match the real experience the consumer has of that brand, advertising will be a costly waste of both time and money." She and a collaborator have eight ways to define and to deliver truth in marketing.

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