MarketingInsideOut.com

Last week’s Association of National Advertisers’ annual conference, heavily focused on reinventing the marketing industry, was attended by over 1,000 people — a large percentage of which were CMOs. The mantra of the meeting came through loud and clear. It’s time to “let go.”

In his keynote address, P&G chief A.G. Lafley, pronounced that it’s time to “let go” and cede control of your brand to consumers. He underscored the need to move beyond transactions to more meaningful relationships. (This from the company renowned for micromanagement of its brands.) Burger King’s Russ Klein joined the chorus of marketing execs counseling companies to let consumers have brands their way.

Lafley spoke about the need to achieve the right balance of being in touch and in control and the resulting paradox — the more control we take, the less in touch we are.

This theme ran through nearly every presentation, from companies like Sony, Wal-Mart, Mastercard, Yahoo and others.

For some time now, marketers have been talking about “letting go” and engaging in a dialogue with their consumers. Instinctively we know we have no choice. We have to let go, because only then will the consumer engage in our brand, in the community our brand can create, and with each other with our brand. But is it just lip service that sounds good? How prepared are we to take on the challenges that comes with real dialogue — of not telling, but talking?

Marketers have been control freaks for a long time. The shift to engagement is a big mind shift. Engagement requires the act of listening, sharing, creating a dialogue. It is not a one-way conversation we manage/control/spin.

Jim Stengel, P&G global CMO was right on in his ANA presentation when he suggested that the first step is to stop thinking of consumers and consumer segments and start thinking of people – their individual needs, dreams, hopes and wishes.

This simple thing forces an immediate shift in thinking. And as a result, you naturally do things differently.

You market to consumers — you listen to people. You observe consumers –- you interact with people. You deliver messages to consumers –- you talk to people.

It’s a start.

As mentioned in this post, I’m a Lost fan. So far this TV season, I’ve been traveling a great deal and have watched 2 Lost episodes online, 2 Grey’s Anatomy episodes and 1 Ugly Betty episode, so that’s 5 for me. It’s a smooth and enjoyable experience. ABC must be doing well with the online initiatives. According to the latest report, ABC.com’s fall program-streaming initiative has garnered 2.5 million requests for shows in the first two weeks. That’s compared to 5.7 million requests for episodes for thge entire two-month test period in the spring, when ABC first began to stream its top shows online.

On top of online stream, more than 8.5 million downloads of ABC shows on iTunes have been sold since the deal last fall.

At last week’s National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications conference in New York, the network’s Albert Cheng said revenue from ABC.com and the iTunes deal is exceeding internal predictions.

OK…so now I can watch when ever & where ever I want — thanks. But ABC, what the heck are you doing with the story line on Lost. So far this season, I’m less than excited. Why don’t you answer some of the old burning questions instead of just creating a whole bunch of new characters. Seems like a reach to me.