Interactive is the name of the game

Failing to take into account the imperative for interactivity in marketing initiatives is a big mistake today. At a time when people are taking things into their own hands, deciding what content they will "consume", when they will do so and how they will eventually reuse said content, no consumer brand can afford to build rigid marketing plans that involve only top-down communication. The "coke and mentos" phenomenon is a good testimony to the fact that things are changing fast in this space.

 
   
 
   

To a certain extent, companies that do understand that "interactive is the name of the game" stand to win big time. An example? Google would be one excellent example: everything they do is open and interactive from communication to APIs, to testing of their tools by the community... which of course makes it possible for them to carefully choose what is neither interactive nor public. A few years ago, when the Internet was still recovering from the wounds inflicted by the 2000-2001 debacle, many people were willing to bet that Yahoo! was right to try to transform itself into a more traditional media company... The tide has turned for good I think.