What is the Lifestyle Marketplace?

 

It’s a consumer-driven brand engagement dynamic that’s changing the way companies relate to their customers…

 

But let’s back-up. Ten years ago, social media was barely a whisper. Google just registered its IPO. TiVO began enabling viewers to skip over TV commercials…

And search engine optimization revealed a more acute understanding of consumer behavior.

 

What we didn’t know then was how rapidly consumer behavior was shifting from REACTION to DICTATION. 

 

While media buying and advertising pushed on, brands began losing control over their message – gradually relinquishing their relevancy in the marketplace: Blockbuster, Borders, Circuit City, KB Toys, and a slew of small businesses all shut their doors in the last decade – failing to respond to shifting consumer control.

Others today are barely holding on. Yet brand marketing was slow to alter its course leaning harder on TRADITIONAL offers… SALE, NEW, FREE with diminishing success.

 

But some positive shifts were happening. Retailers experimented with new formats, product assortments and store designs. A new era of innovative marketing was emerging. Then, personal technology exploded – and social media got real.

And the linear consumer marketing continuum twisted into millions of personalized configurations…amassing and sharing content on a global scale. Dictated by every active consumer the middleman was extracted from the transaction equation as new disintermediating brands materialized: Napster, BitTorrent, Amazon, Ebay and Facebook.

 

The Consumer became empowered to engage directly with brands – making purchase decisions anywhere and any time, influencing others, instantly, constantly.

 

New communities of passionate consumers emerged – led by their most influential tastemakers. Brands had to get in on their conversations. They had to be better storytellers. They had to engage consumers more intimately in the context of their daily lives.

 

Now back to present day – peering into the future, brands understand the need to integrate their marketing spends into single strategies that correlate with the lives of their most passionate consumers.

But what agencies will lead that integration?

That’s for us to figure out…

And what is that form of marketing called?

Lifestyle.