There's always a time lag between a paradigm shift and the broader realisation that the world has changed forever. We're in the throes of a time lag right now. Digital technologies have altered communications beyond all recognition, yet many professionals are still catching up. People are still talking about the shift from exposure to engagement and interaction as if it's new news. If anyone thinks we've just shifted to second gear, wake up and see the world hurtling past at breakneck speed.
One-way communication, the old way of raising awareness of a product and expecting people to buy it, is long gone. In a world of instant interaction and brand overload, everything has become an exchange, not just the transaction, but every piece of communication. The brand-consumer exchange is no longer based just on money, but time and energy because these are the trade-off decisions people make every day, in deciding what brands to bother with.
So, when speaking to consumers, brands have to offer something, be it branded entertainment, or something useful, like an online application that they can express themselves with, or perhaps, something free. What brands get out of this exchange, is consumers' attention and perhaps the permission to keep up the conversation. But, keep it fresh. A conversation, by definition, evolves; subjects change. Otherwise the speaker soon finds himself alone, engaged in a soliloquy.
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