The Next Wave mission statement if you will is “Create Lust • Evoke Trust”- not some long corporate-speak, buzzword laden promise of advertising done scientifically or even better than the other guy. It’s been that way since around 2000- because it took us that long to really figure out what we do in four words or less. Yes, Nike beats us with “Just do it” - one less word, but, it took them years as well.

For the most part- advertising is intrusive. If most of it went away tomorrow, few of us would miss it. Now a days if we’re interested in buying something we’re a Google search away from finding out everything we want to know about a product or service- as long as we’re aware it’s available. That’s why more and more, advertising is more about branding and awareness than hard selling. We want you to “like” our brand on Facebook, or become a “friend” or “follower” so that we can hopefully be top-of-mind when the decision comes to buy our product or service.

The Internet is an amazing tool for marketers because it gives measurable results via stats, clickthroughs and metrics that no other advertising medium has before (except maybe direct mail which could be personalized and tracked). The creativity that’s required now is to evoke some kind of emotional connection to your brand- to inspire action, if it’s only to click a link or join a group.

Here’s a portion of a discussion on APR Marketplace- which talks about how we’re now more focused on generating brand evangelists to sell our products to their friends instead of making advertising do the heavy lifting:

Boone says he hopes efforts like these will help advertisers see new possibilities for interactive ads.

Boone: By combining technology with creativity, we’ll get transformative advertising that is of a higher utility to consumers.

But even with all of the new possibilities for ads, some lessons from the old school still apply says Stewart Alter, executive vice president at McCann. Alter says the ability to create an emotional response to a product is more important than ever. He points to a well-known scene in “Mad Men” when Don Draper pitches his ad campaign for Kodak’s new slide projector.

“Mad Men” clip: It’s a time machine. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again.

Stewart Alter: The way he transforms what the product benefit is into this emotional benefit for buyers of the product — that’s what is most fundamental about advertising.

That emotional benefit is especially crucial in the age of social media says Matt Donovan, a managing partner at McCann.

Matt Donovan: I think the old “trying to sell things” is actually not what we’re focused on now.

Wait, advertisers are no longer focused on selling things? Donovan says, no. Instead, they’re focused on inspiring consumers enough that they sell things to each other, by “liking” a company on Facebook, tweeting about an ad campaign, or Yelping a review.

Donovan: I could see a world in 10 years, where people proactively take on the responsibility of creating branded content on behalf of their favorite brand or product that they’re passionate about.

For most of us, recommendations from friends are more powerful than an ad, says Horizon Media analyst Brad Adgate. He says social media has turned us all into little advertising megaphones.

Brad Adgate: It’s no longer a top down approach where the advertiser will send a message down to consumers. We all have bully pulpits and there’s more of a give and take.

Adgate says more and more, we are using our bully pulpits to promote products to our friends. So really, the new Don Draper… is you.

via Madison Avenue’s new advertising lords | Marketplace from American Public Media.

We’ve been working at creating ads that people want to hang up on their walls, menus that people want to take home with them and proudly hang on their refrigerator and most of all- instill trust in our clients brands through consistent messaging about what’s really important- the customers sense of success or personal well being created by doing business with our clients.

People don’t buy because of an ad- they buy because they think their life will be better if they own this product or use this service- without that emotional reinforcement, you’re not really creating a valuable business relationship- you’re just having a one night stand.