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Control seems to be the word of the week. In fact, Olivier Blanchard over at Brand Builder Blog published an interesting manifesto on the subject. Olivier is also covering the WOMMA conference this week.

Four yeas ago, I was asked by a reporter what my top email marketing predictions were for 2002. I was working as VP of marketing for a software startup and we were developing community tools like boards, chat and and instant messaging client. I remember telling the reporter that “commerical email list rental is dead” which is something I had said at a conference in mid-2001 in from a bunch of media buyers and planners and of course list brokers who were anything but thrilled with me sharing my doom-and-gloom thoughts in a room full of clients that were considering renting commercial email lists. For a moment, I felt like I was getting the middle finger from 300 people. Anyway… My point to the reporter was simply that people are tired of being invaded, tricked, and swamped with meaningless messages from people they don’t trust and, it was going to stop.

That conversation started what was to become the framework for a model I called Neighboring. Here’s the definition I provided to NetLingo:

The term “neighboring” refers to an online marketing strategy that uses live interactive sessions, such as instant messaging (IM), to initiate product and service recommendations across various user groups. Unlike many marketing campaigns, neighboring uses dialogs that are initiated, modified, and terminated by individuals within an IM network — not by a corporation or marketing firm, thereby allowing advertisers to gain access to closed-social networks by using real-time communication tools. The power of the neighboring model lies within the influence an individual has in an established small network, as well as the strength of the relationship an individual has with an advertiser. Neighboring advocates assert that it provides cost-effective online acquisition activities, deeper customer relationships, and the ability to expand reach online.

If you’re interested in reading the piece, you can find it on Instant Messaging Planet.

The framework is heavy on tool usage but I believe “tools” – even comment features on blogs – provide a framework for advertisers to make connections with individuals without shifting the power of control away from the individual publisher.

Personally, I’m a big believer in WOMM but I’m not sure we’ve reached the “tipping point” just yet on the control front. Individuals will participate and be heard as valuable voices in a marketing world but today many advertisers are still not listening while cash not connnectedness rules the day.

TAGS: Control, Olivier Blanchard, Word of Mouth, WOMMA, Neighboring, Todd Tweedy