Redefining Collective Consciousness

Sandwiched between the Super Bowl for men’s marketers (pun intended) and the number one red carpet event that is sure to bring all women to their (and their friends) couches (in case anyone was not aware — the Oscars are on this weekend), I once again began thinking about the impact that social media has made on our television experience — albeit, prompted by the NY Times article that I read from my mobile device (a coincidence? I think not).

As someone mildly interested in the results for the Super Bowl outcome this year – I was watching for the commercials, the half time show and of course, the outcome of my office pool, I noticed that my Super Bowl party had a new guest this year – a computer! Throughout the night, we each picked up the computer to log into our Facebook accounts, our twitter feeds or a blog like Perez to see if our reaction was also that of our friends, colleagues, experts, etc.  In response to events like the Half Time show and the Groupon commercial, I began to realize that the reactions to some of the more controversial or incredible moments of the night received an instantaneous feedback from people not even present at my party. And, in essence began to create camps of our collective opinions or collective consciousness, if you will. So, by the time we were at the water cooler the next day –we already had a solid understanding of what people outside of our party of 10 thought about the sound system during the half time show — and therefore we already knew which camp we were a part of.

Therefore, as a marketer, I couldn’t help but notice how the increased integration between advertising and PR were more and more imperative. Marrying the two successfully by helping to imprint on the discussion and therefore shape the inevitable conversation that we are striving for, will drive not only impressions but word of mouth marketing – in a new way. I am intrigued by the Super Bowl model for measuring earned media (noted in the New York Times article) and can only hope the marketers to women get the same numbers next week and moving forward. And how do we take these lessons from cultural events like the red carpet to every day marketing practices to drive the same end goal — even if Ryan Seacrest isn’t providing ongoing commentary.

Image: Minh Uong/The New York Times