Unless you lived on the moon, you realize the global economy is struggling because most corporations are not constructed to produce any real value. They are designed to maximize shareholder value while stakeholders are getting squeezed to improve the bottom line and introduce as many efficiencies as possible. Add to that corporate welfare, Fed and Treasury policies, regulations (or lack thereof) and you end up with a toxic mess of an ongoing banking crisis, mind-numbing landscapes of mini malls, toxicity in assets, the environment and the overall capitalistic world we are living in. And, while people are crowding the bargain bins, corporations continue to develop cheaper ways to satisfy the need for the bargain. Interestingly, when you produce a mediocre product/service (create thin value, as Umair Haque calls it), the price is all what matters. When you create real value/thick value, price becomes a tertiary consideration. Call it awesomeness, call it being amazing, call it being a linchpin.

With a few, rare exceptions, advertising has focused on creating thin value. Rather than inspiring people with marketing for products that add value, most of marketing/advertising is focused on brainwashing people into buying stuff that makes no difference. Just another item I can use and throw away/forget about effortlessly without considering the implications for the rest of the world. (Labor Conditions, Environment, Export/Import Structures)

Now, let’s look at the advertising/marketing industry. It’s not a dying industry but an industry in deep trouble. We are not considered partners, we’re just another vendor that sells questionable value. Media Buying has become a commodity, media planning to follow soon. The people we market to are busy tuning us out because they don’t feel marketing creates any real value. While we continue to communicate to people as they were still consumers, they are busy producing, communicating and building networks. We have commoditized our industry to death, starting to hop on a dangerous death spiral. Just like the whole economic system.

Advertising is just one pillar of the economic system we’re living in. Advertising can’t change the world or make it a better place. But, as part of a new economic system, advertising can be an inspiration, an artistic expression of the paradigm change. As an industry, we need to focus on the drastic changes the economic system is going through. We can safely say, the end of creating slim/thin value for profit is fast approaching. No matter how good your strategies/tactics/ideas are, unless you create real value for society with your products and services, you will fail in the long run.

My headline “Why advertising professionals need to be economic professionals” didn’t imply you need to watch Bloomberg all day, read each article in the WSJ or get a degree in economics. Most of what you read or see there is just an expression of times almost passed. All of us need to understand that our whole economic system is transforming and changing into something much more substantial, sustainable and human. Advertising is just another expression of this change. Please work, create, add value accordingly.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a librarian.

I was in love with reading, often carrying up to 10 books home on Friday afternoon, done with nine of them by Saturday evening. Having the chance to read all these wondrous books, introducing others to the mysterious world of fairy tales, thrillers and history seemed to be the best job in the world.

Well, here I am, not having considered being a librarian for more than 30 years and as much removed from the library world as anybody can be.

Given the abysmal state of libraries in the US, this seems to be a good deal to me personally. But, it left me with the question to ponder: Where are the passionate librarians coming from? Where are the hard-working firemen coming from? From where do we recruit the best nurses we will all need one day?

We live in a world where we are more focused on ourselves than focusing on the community we live in, where money has a higher value than what real value someone added to the world. And that world has turned important professions like being a nurse or a teacher into jobs for people that weren’t able to get that special degree or didn’t have the chance to get a higher education. Just experience the amazing care hospice nurses take of dying people or the passion good teachers show each and every day towards their pupils, and putting these amazing people down as not good enough to get a “real good job” will make you feel ashamed of your warped opinion.

In the holiday season of giving back, the advertising industry should consider transforming the image of these jobs that make our community work and our world worth living in. Let’s face it, the majority of us in the marketing world earn much more than any librarian or nurse, and we have contributed less to society than they do each and every day. When you are in trouble, would you turn to your fellow Creative Director or your police man for help? It’s time for us to help them.

Ultimately, we need to take a hard look at the value of work. Why do we consider blue-collar work less valuable than white-collar work? Should an investment banker be 100x times more worth than a teacher? The value we attach to specific kinds of work determine what kind of society we are and want to be. Time for a reset?

Many businesses try to compete with price. Or compete with features. Or dependability. Convenience.

The problem is, most of these competitive advantages become commodities over time. Leading to a price (feature – you name it) race down to the bottom. Almost everything will become a commodity in the end. With the exception of being human.

Being human can’t be scaled (meaning: it can’t be bought), it can’t be institutionalized ( we immediately feel the difference between a disneyfied and a real human interaction) and your competitors can’t “out-human” you.

As a small coffee shop you can’t win against Starbucks on product reliability, supplier margins or advertising budget. Your competitive advantage is being human. It’s the hug my daughter gets every Sunday morning from her favorite barista. It’s them knowing our order in advance and having it almost ready when we walk into the door. It’s the real smile they put on their customers faces.

There are many customers that desire the reliability and efficiency of Starbucks. It takes a lot to keep this machine alive: loyalty cards, free WiFi, advertising dollars, etc. Starbucks has to invest constantly to attract the same audience over and over again. Being human doesn’t require that. Doing something special for a customer, won’t ever be forgotten. How do you value a hug? How do you value a smile? How do you value a human connection?

Being human is the most underrated competitive advantage

You hear and read it everywhere: Social Media is overhyped. Social Media experts will soon be applying for jobs at Burger King. In the end, the bubble will burst and Social Media will be Second Life 2. Or Zune 3.

Even in the Social Media echo chamber, we can feel the skepticism and defeatism when discussing the future of Social Media. The big agencies and brand will take over and ruin everything. Again. (Cue the Kleenex box.) Brands don’t get it. (Fist against the wall.) Money ruins everything. (Head against the wall.)

And we thought Social Media would change the world.

Let me burst the first bubble: Social Media won’t change the world. Stop drinking that Kool-Aid, it’s not good for you. Technology has changed everything: Transforming people from consumers to producers. Changed human behavior. Redefining human relationships. Transforming how we live. Transforming companies how they do business. Transforming institutions. Changing everything.

Social Media is just one expression of that change. Nothing else. It’s more than another channel to broadcast your messages. But it’s not the messiah that will miraculously change the world.

We wanted to change the world and all we got was Lolcats.

The essence of human beings didn’t change because we have new technologies. Silliness is just another expression of human creativity. But we see people helping each other by using these technologies. On a small scale. On a big scale. I can send my kid every night a good night story while 7,000 miles away and share a video of my experiences in Tokyo with my wife, feeling a connection to my girls. I can meet the woman of my dreams online. I can have meaningful discussions with people all over the world without ever meeting them. Or finally meeting them. And that’s the just bottom of the first inning of a long game. I would argue, this is the bottom of the first inning of a Best of 7 World Series. Soon, you’ll be able to own your own data, share it on your own terms, issue personal RFP’s and revolutionize everything: healthcare, politics, marketing, enterprises – you name it. And that might be bottom of the second inning. Who knows what will happen in Game 7, bottom of the 9th?

So, let’s burst the bubble of the Social bubble.

If you define social as Facebook pages, Twitter feeds or a fancy application: That bubble will burst. I totally agree with you. And you should be cheering for it. Most of these initiatives are just applying the old broadcast strategies, tactics and metrics to a new way of interacting with people.

Social isn’t a beauty contest, a chase to add your follower counts or another popularity contest. These are the LolCats of social. What social is really about is trust, connection and community. Social is about rewiring human beings, communities, societies, business and the world.

So stop whining, stop being afraid of the Twitter/Facebook bubble to burst. Just keep on moving foward. We’ve barely begun.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – Clavin Coolidge