Stickier Marketing

Communication Revolution

When former US president Bill Clinton took office in 1993, the World Wide Web offered about 50 websites. When he left the White House eight years later, it had more than 350 million. Just as the printing press changed Western history in the 1450s, 20th-century developments in communication technology changed all the rules. Today, you’re marketing in the digital age.

Print materials communicated ideas from one person to many people. Radio, television and film reach a vast audience; yet they remain “one-to-many” platforms. The producers of books, shows or movies broadcast their messages, but the multitudes receiving them couldn’t directly communicate with those who created the work they were seeing. As passive recipients of mass-produced messages, individuals held little authority. The Internet changed this paradigm forever. The web is a “many-to-many” communication platform. Via the web, you – and everybody else in the world – can disseminate your message to multitudes in real time across borders. For instance, during the 2009 US presidential inauguration, CNN’s live feed posted 4,000 status updates every minute from people discussing the ceremony...