What’s important about the Geico example is two things:

1. Tone, or voice. As I’ve been harping on, even if we know the intent is sales, the tone isn’t anywhere near it. This is one of the benefits of the “non related” commercial strategy. You can use an unrelated tone without it feeling…fishy.
2. There’s something important about the comedic factor of the Geico commercials. That comedic factor is, in my opinion, a social capital deposit in the favor of the company the commercial is for. In my mind, I go something like, “OK, you made me laugh. Well done. For that, I’m willing to accept that you’re selling me something, even though I did’t really want to be sold to in the first place.”

Commercials that are unrelated to the product/service they sell that don’t elicit a similar response (by either being funny, ridiculous, or SO in incongruent that it is inherently interesting) fall into that “uncomfortable, I know I’m being sold to and I’m not OK with it” pitch voice.

And to your final point that one is correct and the other isn’t, of course. These essays are speaking in extreme terms for the sake of illustration. In practice, all new media/social media/whatever you want to call it works BEST when used in conjunction with traditional efforts.

Great, great points, and I’m glad you brought them up.

What’s important about the Geico example is two things:

1. Tone, or voice. As I’ve been harping on, even if we know the intent is sales, the tone isn’t anywhere near it. This is one of the benefits of the “non related” commercial strategy. You can use an unrelated tone without it feeling…fishy.
2. There’s something important about the comedic factor of the Geico commercials. That comedic factor is, in my opinion, a social capital deposit in the favor of the company the commercial is for. In my mind, I go something like, “OK, you made me laugh. Well done. For that, I’m willing to accept that you’re selling me something, even though I did’t really want to be sold to in the first place.”

Commercials that are unrelated to the product/service they sell that don’t elicit a similar response (by either being funny, ridiculous, or SO in incongruent that it is inherently interesting) fall into that “uncomfortable, I know I’m being sold to and I’m not OK with it” pitch voice.

And to your final point that one is correct and the other isn’t, of course. These essays are speaking in extreme terms for the sake of illustration. In practice, all new media/social media/whatever you want to call it works BEST when used in conjunction with traditional efforts.

Great, great points, and I’m glad you brought them up.

“As we’ve established, the language of “pitch”, which includes sales, marketing, campaigns, verticals, leveraging, and more…is ineffective.”

Let’s take a real life example: Geico. Everyone knows their commercials. They usually are only barely, at best, related to the services they sell. I wouldn’t really consider their commercials a ‘pitch’ beyond saying “hey, I can save you money on your car insurance.” Other than that these commercials just tend to be funny which is why they work. They are sales, they are marketing, and they are effective – not ineffective.

The kind of pitch you are talking about I think is just the lowest form of sales, the true sleazy pitch. Just like pitch websites or infomercials, you are right, they work by volume alone. However, there are many pitches (in the form of commercials and other mass media advertisements) that work because they’re clever, and yes, because of numbers. That doesn’t make the irrelevant or obsolete.

I think the whole new media vs. old media sales & marketing is just going to eventually balance one another out: to make a blanket statement that one or the other is correct I just don’t buy. Traditional Sales & Marketing has its place… as certainly “new” sales & marketing does as well. To be a big-time company you need to hit the masses, that will never change.

Later dude, – Lee

“As we’ve established, the language of “pitch”, which includes sales, marketing, campaigns, verticals, leveraging, and more…is ineffective.”

Let’s take a real life example: Geico. Everyone knows their commercials. They usually are only barely, at best, related to the services they sell. I wouldn’t really consider their commercials a ‘pitch’ beyond saying “hey, I can save you money on your car insurance.” Other than that these commercials just tend to be funny which is why they work. They are sales, they are marketing, and they are effective – not ineffective.

The kind of pitch you are talking about I think is just the lowest form of sales, the true sleazy pitch. Just like pitch websites or infomercials, you are right, they work by volume alone. However, there are many pitches (in the form of commercials and other mass media advertisements) that work because they’re clever, and yes, because of numbers. That doesn’t make the irrelevant or obsolete.

I think the whole new media vs. old media sales & marketing is just going to eventually balance one another out: to make a blanket statement that one or the other is correct I just don’t buy. Traditional Sales & Marketing has its place… as certainly “new” sales & marketing does as well. To be a big-time company you need to hit the masses, that will never change.

Later dude, – Lee