• by Charles Salmore , March 12, 2007

If, in today's online world of YouTube, MySpace and Digg, everyone can be famous for 15 friends, how do marketers harness the ever-growing consumer urge to influence the very foundations of brands? And, most importantly, how will anyone monetize original consumer generated media (CGM) on the web?

According to Jim Stengel, CMO of Procter & Gamble, the world's largest marketer, "telling and selling" is defunct. It is gone forever.

In his recent address to the American Association of Advertising Agencies Media Conference and Trade Show in Las Vegas, Mr. Stengel stated that carefully crafted messages, force-fed through traditional media distribution channels, are largely being ignored by today's Internet-savvy consumers.

In fact, it's no longer a one-way communication medium. The web has brought fundamental and irreversible changes to the way marketers promote their brands. Instead, it's about bringing a genuine relationship mindset to everything, everywhere and everyone. Nowadays, people are talking to each other in honest, real, genuine one-to-one online conversations.

We are seeing a rapid-expansion in two-way interactive conversations. In chat-rooms, social-networks, postings, message-boards, blogs and other digital communities, an increasing number of consumers are talking about brands and their reputation. No company -- big or small -- can stop this trend. So why not join in?

Marketers are enthusiastically "speaking" directly with this growing consumer generated media and addressing their questions, concerns and thirst for knowledge. Procter & Gamble is one of the most forward-thinking global marketers, leading this two-way initiative.

I know this first-hand. Recently, I had the opportunity to work with P&G to create a highly-successful online word-of-mouth marketing campaign, around P&G-owned awards show telecast, "The People's Choice Awards." I know it was successful because we were able to track consumer involvement and interactivity through a wide range of related online activities including chat-rooms, social-networks, blogs, forums and targeted online communities.

It was completely transparent. Consumers understood the connection between "The People's Choice Awards" and P&G's products and spoke to us openly, and for the most part, positively, spreading that message across the Web in a way no marketer can do on its own, and without the collaboration of consumers.

In a "go digital or go under" world, using ethical viral marketing methods in an authentic, trustworthy and generous fashion is the future.

Charles "Chas" Salmore is CEO of Los Angeles-based Marketingworks, ("MWKS"), www.mworks-inc.com.