Download video of Doug Weaver's complete presentation here.
I was reminded of this dead idea while listening to Lisa Donohue speak about the iPad. She called it the world's first completely convergent device and she said it may change everything. But before that, Nancy Galanty quoted another great digital thinker, Heidi Klum, who said, "One day in fashion you're in, the next day you're out."
Over the last 16 years, I've seen so many silver bullets and Holy Grails come and go, starting with push technology (remember that?), behavioral targeting, and now exchanges and demand platforms. And then what? It's never going to end.
The silver bullet is a dead idea. There will only be more and more bullets, more and more and more tools. Nothing changes the game all by itself, but everything alters the ecosystem and the chemistry of what we do.
We destroy our own credibility with investors and marketers and consumers when we talk about the latest edition of the Holy Grail. You want a sustainable roll in marketing? Do you want a future that really builds the value of what we do? Become an expert in consumer behavior. Become an anthropologist. Focus your points of view on what the consumer will really adopt and why; on which technologies and systems will really inform and accelerate consumer behavior; and how each will suddenly interact and alter the landscape.
This is the eleventh in a 12-part series of dead internet ideas. Here are the previous entries:
Doug Weaver is senior analyst for iMedia, as well as founder and CEO of Upstream Group.
On Twitter? Follow iMedia at @iMediaTweet.
