Not so long ago advertising was TV, newspapers, magazine, outdoor and newspaper ads. Even with the Web in the mix, most “digital stuff” was left to digital specialist.

As the digital space has become more important to consumers and clients and more money is invested, it’s become a no brainier for ad agencies to want to be more involved. As they have, they’ve tried to apply old branding models to a new and more complex network of communication. They’re finding that things like micro sites aren’t always the best vehicle for promotions that might work better on Facebook.

Which brings us to social media. If advertisers run an ad on Facebook, does Facebook become advertising? I could argue that any media that paid communication inform about a product or service is advertising. That’s what ad agencies do with other media.

But social media isn’t created for readers, it’s created by and with them. Which is why an ad can appear so intrusive in this media. This means that advertisers have to think differently about the messaging that’s used in the social space and possibly, maybe even start from an a different creative brief.

Posted on: August 3, 2009, by : Jimmy Gilmore