Z.E.R.O.: Zero Paid Media as the New Marketing Model

CHAPTER8

Is It Time to Blow Up the Entire Model?

We can debate all we want until the proverbial (cash) cow comes home, but as long as we bring a scalpel to a task befitting a hatchet, incremental change will be marginal and short-lived at best.

The multibillion-dollar (or insert your local currency here) question is this: Can brands survive at all in this ubiquitously digital, increasingly social, exponentially mobile, always-on, always-public free-for-all chaos?

To help us answer the question, here are a few reframes of the same question:

• How can brands survive in this chaos?
• Will brands evolve to a better state of being/operating in this stormy environment?
• How can brands differentiate themselves and achieve elements of sustainable competitive advantage amidst this climate of constant flux?
• Can brands in fact thrive in this volatility?

Help Me Help You

The quick answer is a cautiously optimistic yes. The glass is at a very minimum surprisingly half full, as opposed to leaking vociferously, hemorrhaging, or being altogether shattered. That is of course, entirely dependent on your frame of mind, sensibility, and, most important, course of action from here on out; and it requires and begins with the same advice given to an airline passenger being instructed on emergency or evacuation procedures: First put on your mask or life jacket before helping others. In other words, you can't help others if you're dead.

The first step to solving a problem is to admit there is a problem to ...