Have you ever stopped to wonder how much time is spent trying to think of the “Big Idea” within agencies and marketing departments the world over? How many drafts of “The Message” have you looked at and edited over and over? What if the future of effective advertising isn’t about any of those things at all?

While there will certainly always be a place for and significant value to be derived from stellar concepts and amazing creative, consumers are becoming increasingly skilled at tuning out overwrought ideas and messaging completely. If your brand doesn’t have big media dollars to forcefully saturate the market (or if that’s just not your brand’s nature), it might be time to start thinking about the new Economy of Relevance.

In the Economy of Relevance, consumers don’t care how emotional or clever messages are, nor do they care how big an idea is. They are looking for relevant things to pull into their lives, while ruthlessly rejecting intruding forces they consider irrelevant or untrustworthy.

So what do they find relevant? Marketing that is responsive to the lives they are already living. As advertising channels continue to proliferate and diversify, the opportunity to create an oasis of relevance only increases for the savviest marketers.

Some brands have taken this call for relevance very literally. Social media-centric triage centers, where brands respond with a moment’s notice, have begun to pop up. Shining examples include Dell’s Social Media Listening and Response Center and Gatorade’s Social Media Command Center. But as that model grows commoditized, brands should be looking outside social media for ways to be more relevant.

If your brand is ready to win the Economy of Relevance, here are a few basic ways, beyond social media listening and responding, to start the journey:

1. Support with Search: If you’re already engaging in a large event, sponsorship or mass media activation (or a competitor is), it’s likely there will be a spike in search activity around the keywords involved. Launch a highly efficient paid search campaign to capitalize on consumers’ interest.
2. Enter a Larger Dialogue: Is there a broader cultural trend that would make sense for your brand to enter? If so, consider authentic and relevant ways to become part of a larger dialogue already underway.
3. Prepare for Crisis: Under what situations will your brand have no choice but to be responsive and relevant? Are there risks that could cause it to be under attack? Consider what medium would be most believable and meaningful to consumers in times of crisis for your brand or industry.

The second post in this series profiles brands that have begun to embrace responsive advertising to bolster their relevance to consumers. Are you ready to make the move?

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