T.S. Eliot is often credited with the quote “Mediocre writers borrow. Great writers steal.”

I guess that makes me a mediocre writer because I’ve just borrowed an interesting quote from media strategist Jay Deragon’s blog post on the “Death of Advertising” where he states:

Many say “relational advertising” is impossible. It is to those who say so. It isn’t to those who do it. The advertising industry will simply have to learn how to create conversational currency. Get it? See the difference in the presentation below.

Here’s the presentation, also borrowed, from the same website:

Based on the above, it seems that all you really need to create conversational currency is a good compelling story which does something for people that they find useful, interesting or entertaining and helps them connect with the advertiser and the product in a two way dialogue.

Only then will the “media skeptic” become less skeptical.

The “relational advertising” component is simply a fancy term for two way dialogue and after you’ve exchanged enough two way dialogue and shared a few interesting stories then you’ve developed “conversational currency” which is simply the building up of enough trust so that the person on the other side of the conversation doesn’t completely distrust everything you say.

This sounds like a complex and time consuming process, kind of like a relationship or a marriage.

What happens when there are 10,000 people looking to connect to one advertiser? How can any single advertiser or marketing manager possibly engage in a two way dialogue with that many people? Won’t the cost of all those distinct, individually targeted campaigns essentially bankrupt the company?

That will be the topic of a future post.