• by Kathy Sharpe , February 3, 2004

The first signs were at AdTech May '03. There was the overload of speakers talking about their new marketing solutions when all they really had was different slants on now familiar technology: search engine marketing, the latest rich media toy... Second there was all the ting-ting (tech bling-bling) used as weapons to disrupt presentations and worn as armor to put off the hard questions. Finally it was the ineffable air of self-importance hanging about three feet off the floor.

Like the owner of the Starbucks across the street, I didn't know where they were all coming from. Doors were opening, clients were increasingly receptive and smart and the quality of the work across the industry was improving daily. Everyone knew that consumers had integrated the Internet into their lives in too many ways to count. That was all true, right and indicative that marketing online was alive and well. But, there was a lot of exciting stuff to do and why weren't these obviously intelligent people getting on with it?

Then, sometime between the Forrester Marketing conference in NYC and NY AdTech, it hit me. We were suddenly once again that loud obnoxious "dot com" industry. The message was loud and clear in every insufferably self-absorbed industry wonk's sermon on his/her vacation + the strength of search engine optimization. Or worse, the spontaneous chorus ranting about "CLIENT" ignorance. Was that really the sound of media reps complaining about having to negotiate a 7-figure contract?

At the iMedia summit, Mike Drexler cautioned the industry that they "needed to grow up". But our seemingly constant need to beat our chests and sling arrogance like a six-shooter won't be cured by time. It's easy to say some of us are either too young to have lived through the "Dot com bomb or too stupid to have learned from it. But that's simply not true.

The problem is much more complex. We haven't really drunk are own KOOL-AIDE. Simply put we don't yet really believe in the power of the industry most of us had helped create. How could this be, after the last couple of years? Only if you don't pay attention to consumers, their behavior and the strides our Clients have taken in response.

Taken this way, the strident complaints we still hear too often and the immature attention paid to "ting ting"are really the problem; they aren't the messenger. We've arrived as a media, people!

Internet usage is destroying television viewership. The ability to combine the best of brand marketing with the most powerful direct measurement tools all for the cost of a print ad is more than just great. It is revolutionary. And that's scary, because the implications are the wholesale change of the advertising industry as we know it. The destruction of the old guard, old ways, old rules, old awards and old products e.g. television spots, outdoor boards et.al. We are making that happen just by doing our jobs. Now its much more understandable why we may not quite believe.

So instead we retreat into a safer place, where we are the interlopers who must justify our existence everyday. Where we try to get all that we can, because this can't last. Hasn't that been proven already? No the consumer hasn't rejected the Internet. We have doubted it.

This isn't chest thumping. It's just the truth. So lets stop the constant diatribes and the endless self-justification. We can just be smart and serve our clients and the rest will take care of itself. Or rather the rest will change irrevocably as industries have historically changed- in response to the latest invention that makes life easier for the people who use it.

In other words, go ahead. Drink the KOOL-AIDE. The revolution won't be televised. But, it may very well be streamed.