Seizing Hashtag Internet Traffic

Hell, with a title like that, this post stands a fair chance of getting read by all sorts of marketing people freaking out about being behind the latest curve — that Saturn-sized bowling ball coming down the lane toward all the pins out there hoping to be spared a strike.
 
The technology gush has ad agencies everywhere killing themselves to make sure their clients know that they’re on the cutting edge or bleeding edge or leading edge or whatever the hell they’re calling it these days. It’s a fear that’s replacing what agencies should actually be doing: coming up with ideas. Telling great stories.
 
Everyone seems to have forgotten that all those apps and platforms and feeds are just delivery boys. Sure, some have unique features, just as TV did compared to radio and streaming video does compared to TV and Snapchat does compared to postcards (those things you pitch in the trash after about 4 seconds).
 
But what you broadcast or stream or whatever you’d throw your mother under a bus for to go viral still has to be something worth looking at. You know, it needs to be interesting. And it needs to be more interesting than ever for that very reason. The media buffet audiences stroll by everyday is roughly the size of the Milky Way.
 
So get an idea. Have a story. If it’s worth its salt, it’ll fit in a Vine or a 30-second spot or Snapchat. Maybe even a postcard that the USPS guys are stuffing in mailboxes every day.
 
Howard Gossage said it best: Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. And sometimes it’s an ad.
 
No matter how you look at it, advertisers are in the bait-and-switch business.
 
Oh, and the title to this post? It's acronymic. 
 
©John Hofmeister. Find me at jhofmeister.com. @jwhirred