When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.

If only we could turn back the clock, right? Get back into the pulpit. Shine up those megaphones. Clear our throats and beguile the gathered masses with our slippery oration and tantalizing slide show.

But we can’t. And honestly, who would want to?

It’s just so much easier now.

Easier to start communicating. To stimulate. To experiment in small, measured doses. Easier to seek out people who like what you make, who like what you do, and create a relationship that’s mutually beneficial.

It’s easier to listen. To see and hear how consumers consume. To follow their hearts and their habits. To learn. To participate along with them.

Conversation makes advertising easier.

“The audience is to be considered first and foremost. They are to be involved.”

- Howard Gossage

(Funny thing is, that quote came from the mid-1960s.)

What makes conversation so beguiling is that we/you the advertiser don’t have to do all the work anymore. At least, not the same kind of work we used to. In the conversation model, we see three basic roles for advertising:

1) Incite
Simple enough. Now where did we put those megaphones?

2) Enable
Here’s where the paradigm has evolved, thankfully. It’s about providing ingredients, assets, tools and direction. It’s not about giving up control. We never had it anyway. It’s about getting elements of your brand into the hands of the people best equipped to promote your brand.

3) Guide
It’s not about telling, it’s about showing. Put an example of what you like out there and see if the masses will react with their own version. Might be better than yours. It’s also about Step 1 again, in pinpointing evangelists and inciting them (perhaps even incenting them) to continue a mutually beneficial conversation.

That’s where our heads are at, at the moment.

What do you think about all this?