The Chaos Scenario
by Bob Garfield
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bob GarfieldEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-08-03
ISBN: 0984065105
Number of pages: 306
Publisher: Stielstra Publishing
Book Reviews of The Chaos Scenario
Book Review: Stimulating and Chaotic
Summary: 4 Stars
I first came across media critic Bob Garfield in 2005 when I read his Ad Age essay, also titled "The Chaos Scenario. His argument was that mass media is dying and that the Internet will never become a mass medium -- resulting in a period of chaos for the media, brands, marketers, and advertisers. That's my abridged version. Garfield's essay can be Googled. It is prescient and compelling.
Version One of The Chaos Scenario changed my mind. I bought the premise, and moved deeper into cyberspace. As of this writing, in 2011, I believe we have entering the marketing chaos Mr. Garfield predicted. I've seen it first hand with my clients. Almost all of my marketing consulting work is now focused on the Internet.
The book "The Chaos Scenario" expands on Garfield's Ad Age essays and combines ideas from his blog, The Bobosphere. My criticism of the book is that it feels more like a collection of essays and blogposts than a coherent whole, but since his title hinges on the word "chaos," perhaps this ad hoc approach simply delivers on the brand promise. In the prologue Garfield does admit "writing a book about the digital world is like trying to sketch the Kentucky Derby."
Criticisms aside, this book is packed with useful perspectives and real world examples. Garfield persuasively expands his case that mass media is dying due to high overhead, new technologies that bypass commercials, audience fragmentation brought on my more choice, and steadily declining reach. And he points to the need for the transition from telling and selling to building relationships through the social capabilities of the Internet.
Garfield's recommended start is for brand managers to listen to what people are saying online. The book proceeds to show how the power of brand voice is shifting from the advertising overlords to individuals and groups. People trust ads less and rely on each other more through online search, blogposts, and reviews on Amazon, eBay, and social media. A study by Adidas and Electronic arts showed that 70% of ROI was attributable to customer-to-customer proliferation. So he sees listening and surveying this new landscape as a necessary first step.
The Chaos Scenario also provides many case studies of successful engagement on the Internet. LEGO and Dell have engaged online with customers to develop new products. Office Max succeeded with a fun and interactive promotion called Elf Yourself. Churchlife.tv succeeded in creating a virtual congregation. And along the way Barrack Obama was elected President of the United States partly due to the power of Social Media.
Not surprisingly, as a media critic, Garfield does an excellent job charting the dark side of the Internet. Starting with his own crusade against COMCAST, moving onto his experience with an Internet hater, and ending with sad stories of kid's being bullied into suicide, The Chaos Scenario provides pointed reminders that everything posted online is public and permanent. If people hate you or your brand and Google ranks nasty diatribes about you on the first page there is nothing you can do about it. As Garfield says, "Never mind what Andy Warhol said. In the future everybody will be slandered in perpetuity.'
The dark insight is balanced with a relatively positive assessment of the Internet's ultimate impact on journalism. While Garfield clearly predicts more gloom and doom for mass media, he sees the advantage of democratized journalism. "Now instead of thousands of reporters there are millions." (I heartily agree with the last insight by Garfield. My FlipBoard feed of my Twitter lists on the iPad has become one of my favorite news sources.)
What this book does not do, and what no book can do, is chart a clear course for marketers on this new road. For the first time since the advent of mass media, marketing is in a period of fundamental creativity and innovation. The power balance in marketing has shifted from the manufacturer, to the mass media, to the retailer, to you and I.
Engage, Revised and Updated: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web
The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition
Summary of The Chaos Scenario
What happens when the old world order collapses and the Brave New World is unprepared to replace it as an ad medium, as a news source, as a political soapbox, a channel for new episodes of Lost? Welcome to The Chaos Scenario. It's here, and Bob Garfield saw it coming. In his roles as Advertising Age editor-at-large and as co-host of NPR's On the Media, Bob Garfield long ago connected dots that many in media and marketing refused even to acknowledge. In this fascinating, terrifying, instructive and often hilarious book, Garfield is not content to chronicle the ruinous disintegration of traditional media and marketing. Instead he travels to five continents for solutions. His journeys begin in a Denmark cow pasture and take him from Estonia to Australia, Israel to England, Montenegro to Brazil, Los Gatos, California, to Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. What he discovers is the answer for all institutions who wish to survive and thrive in a digitally connected, Post-Media Age. He calls this the art and science of Listenomics. You should listen, too.Advertising Books
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