Socioquake
Pennie and I were eating breakfast in Sydney, Australia, with our partnersCraig and Angela Arthur (photo above) when Ange began singing, “We're happy little Vegemites, as bright as bright can be. We all enjoy our Vegemite for breakfast, lunch and tea. Our Mummies say we're growing stronger every single week, because we love our Vegemite, we all adore our Vegemite, it puts a rose on every cheek.“
Vegemite is a condiment unique to Australia that could easily pass for plum jam except that it's salty and savory, kind of like A-1 steak sauce but without the vinegar tang, sort of like sucking a beef bouillon cube. The strangely addictive little jingle responsible for selling nearly 4 jars of Vegemite every second, 24 hours a day, has been sung by Australians since 1923. I doubt there's an Aussie who doesn't know it by heart.
In return for sharing the Vegemite jingle with us, we gave Craig and Ange a rousing rendition of, “Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener. That is what I'd truly like to be-e-e. 'Cuz if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener, everyone would be in love with me.“
Have you noticed how Oscar Mayer has recalled this old jingle out of retirement and flooded the airwaves with it? Hmm…
Recent comments I made in the May 24 and 31 Monday Morning Memos – entitled The Future of Advertising andMedia's Missing Mass – were recently echoed in the June 26 edition of The Economist, “The advertising industry is passing through one of the most disorienting times in its history. This is due to a combination of long-term changes, such as the growing diversity of media, and the arrival of new technologies, notably the internet. Consumers have become better informed than ever before, with the result that some of the traditional methods of advertising and marketing simply no longer work.”
Yes, we've just passed a societal tipping point and the world is changing beneath our feet. Perhaps my Australian buddy Neil McKinley said it best, “Welcome to the 21st century, where the world's best golfer is black, the world's best rapper is white, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, the French call the Americans arrogant and the Germans don't want to go to war.”
If you're a business owner who would like to better understand the socioquake you feel happening all around you and create a strategic plan for harnessing it, here are three things that you can do:
- Grab a seat in an upcoming session of the Secret Formulas Advertising Workshop. (You'll leave with a whole new outlook regarding marketing in the 21st century. I guarantee it.) This workshop is experiential, not theoretical, therefore it's not open to advertising professionals unless they are accompanying a business owner. Bottom line: the sessions have value and make sense only to people with power to implement decisions.
- Schedule a private consulting day in Austin.
- Attend a seminar taught by any of the specially trained and equipped Wizards of Ads.
The future comes like a locomotive. Some businesspeople will grab hold of it and ride into the dawning of a new adventure. Others will be flattened on its tracks.
The whistle is getting louder and the rails are beginning to shake. Have you made your decision?
Roy H. Williams
PS – To take advantage of options 2 or 3, contact Corrine@WizardofAds.com or call Corrine Taylor at (800) 425-4769.
PPS – Be in Austin Saturday, Oct. 2, for an all day open house/graduate's reunion at the new 21-acre campus site of Wizard Academy. Everyone is invited. Food will be provided. 10A-10P. Arooo! Aroo-aroooo!