Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Last week a journalist posed an interesting question that gets to the heart of the philosophy behind blogging and the new dynamics of branded communications in The Age of Conversation:

"Doesn't a company blog share a lot of strategic information, specially visionwise? Isn't it dangerous to show better products done by the competition just for the sake of 'editorial independence', whatever that may mean?" 

I thought a lot about the right response, because the answer is at once simple and complicated.  The simple answer is that we can't be scared of great ideas.  What sets a creative agency apart is the ability to come back with more, better, and even cooler ideas.  The complicated version sounded like a great manifesto for ThreeMinds:

We have always envisioned ThreeMinds as an open conversation that mirrors the way we think about experience design.  We wanted to add another facet to the on-going discussion inside the organization about websites we admire, campaigns that were inspiring (or terrible), or new ideas and trends in the digital space.  The creative process should draw inspiration from the best work of others – it’s a self-serving agency myth that every great idea is somehow unique and unprecedented.  By openly discussing the competition, we make our own ideas even better.

We are constantly telling our clients to make their brand more transparent- to allow their customers to participate and critique, to openly compare their products with the competition, to create a community around the brand.  It would be hypocritical not to follow our own advice when it comes to our business.  By engaging in an open dialogue on the blog, it forces us to walk that talk.

I'm not sure this approach is right for every company.  It’s possible because Organic is one of the leading agencies in the space, and what we have to say about the digital environment carries some authority.  Not every blogger has that luxury.  We are also willing to be critical of the competition and our own trade, and I can imagine that wouldn’t fly in many other industries.  So we preach a two-way conversation. 

Aren't there cases where an open dialogue is not the right approach?  Say for a company whose work is strongly based on intellectual property?

(photo credit: thoughtwax- the text of a poem (The Manifesto of Man by Yuri Galanskov) encoded as an image)

Misha Cornes