Who saw this coming? For the past 10 years, communication experts have heralded a new dawn where the “consumer is King” and companies would lose control of their products and brands to their customers. But like most trends, it took longer to take hold and the reality is not exactly as predicted.

Today we find ourselves trying to help all our clients navigate through the new marketing realities, as traditional media channels are diminishing in their impact (although there will always be a place for them). Depending on the target and the objectives, we are dedicating larger percentages of our clients’ budgets to online advertising and social media channels. After all, these media are where we can have real conversations with our consumers.

In December of 2006, Saint Mary’s University sought help in their recruitment efforts. We recommended that they jump into the online game in a more aggressive way via the form of a microsite we called SMUtube. We knew that 17-year-old kids were spending increasing amounts of time online expressing themselves via the creation of their own content. We rode the early crest of YouTube popularity by creating a site that was dedicated to student-created video content using YouTube functionality and we invited SMU students to post their own videos of their uniquely SMU experience. What better way for prospective students to experience real university life than through watching videos created by real students? It included a virtual tour of the university and links to important program and application information. It now includes a link to the SMU recruitment Facebook page, with plans to add links to other SMU related social spaces such as Twitter and SMU blogs. All of our media tactics (a mix of online and traditional) pointed students to SMUtube to find out more about SMU. Since its inception, the site has received over 50,000 unique visitors from over 30 countries around the world.

In the case of Canoe ’09, we quickly recognized that a social media (what we called 2.0 at the time) was imperative. The combination of needing to reach 100 countries, multiple updates and contributors and the requirement for the site to become not just for communications, but operational made a social media site a no-brainer.

The Vault Jewelry came to us this spring when they were ready to officially launch their second location. We quickly determined that their current customers were not likely to become frequent shoppers at their new store and vice versa. However, they would have similar profiles. We created a grand opening event — MORE TO LOVE — whereby their current customers, mall shoppers and the public at large could text-to-win a shopping spree at The Vault. In addition, customers were invited to join our newly formed loyalty club called ‘The Little Black Book’ and they could follow updates from The Vault via Twitter. The data captured during the two-week promotion has become the backbone of their continued marketing efforts.

A final word on social media — we have no idea what the next Twitter or Facebook will be, but what we can say with relative certainty is that consumers have joined into the conversation and they are not about to shut-up anytime soon!

I've been in the marketing game for almost 25 years now and the most valuable thing I've learned is that I have a whole lot more to learn. I started off in sales and worked my way up (so I thought) to advertising. In hind sight, I realize that sales was the top! You can have sales without advertising, but advertising without sales is just useless art. When Trampoline Branding was formed, we set out with that firmly planted in our minds. Now more than ever we need to keep it very simple for consumers. Good thing, I'm a very simple guy!