RMM

Arriving early at eConsultancy’s Social Media Showcase I was (easily) distracted by RIBA’s bookshop.

Flicking through the construction porn on the shelves there is a clear theme running through the industry’s periodicals; sustainability is an editorial obsession;
Icon: The Edible City
Architecture + Urbanism: Green Architecture
Dwell: Beyond Green
Domus: Natura design magistra

The implication is clear, the architecture profession is taking the challenge of sustainability seriously  and its reflected in product descriptions, the projects featured, and the editorial direction. It means a focus on buildings that last longer and that have a positive impact on the physical environment.

What if we thought the same way about media? What would sustainable communications look like? Communications that last longer and have a positive impact on the media environment?

Which got me thinking about a recent conversation I had with Mark Palmer (Maverick Planet) and Tim Davis of Elicit Consulting about the aggressive militaristic nature of the metaphors we use in marketing: target audience, campaigns, behavioral targeting, segmentation, inventory, and if it goes online we hope it goes viral! Is that really how we should be thinking about our customers?

Would we behave differently if we used farming metaphors? So instead of executing a campaign for a target audience we’d cultivate an audience to grow them for a harvest.

Would the industry magazine be called Grow instead of Campaign?

Would we fund and execute nurture our communications differently?

Would the result be more sustainable communications, communications that have a positive impact on the media environment?