Where were you when...?

This week we all had a rare experience.  We all had a singular shared experience.  A "Where were you when...?" experience.  Of course I'm talking about the Osama Bin Laden story.  This story has been "done" to death, but my take on it is a little different.  A singular shared experience is very rare for us in today's fragmented digital age.  While information travels quickly in today's information age, we are not all sitting in front of one screen watching it together.  We are all lost in our own customized view of the virtual world.  Twitter, College Humor, cnn.com, apps...on and on.  In the information age, a common refrain is "Really? I missed that".

So, it's a rare thing for us all to share in a message at the same time.  It use to be common place.  The whole country use to watch Johnny Carson together.  Or, every Friday morning most people would gather around the water cooler and discuss last night's Seinfeld episode.  But this is simply no longer the reality as we all have virtually unlimited choice in the virtual world.

I think marketers are still struggling to come to terms with this.  I've sat in far too many meetings were we grasped for the big idea.  But in today's world maybe you need more small (but brilliant) ideas to make an impact on society.

The age of "I'd like to teach the world to sing..." spots is gone.  So is the Apple 1984 approach.  Brands don't need a campaign...brands need many campaigns and many strategies to make a cultural impact.