Don't worry about labels.

We recently got a few agencies together to welcome our friends from The Drum to Leeds. Inevitably talk turned to work and the sort of business we are all pitching for at the minute. The story was the same across PR, digital and branding agencies. It seems there is one 'space' that all agencies are working in, albeit from slightly different angles. Many tags are applied to this space and none really cover it. Digital, content marketing, pull marketing, digital PR, all these badges are suitably amorphous to do the job but none really nail what we are all doing for a living at the moment. 

We live in a society where people are digitally supported in their daily lives and don't draw the distinction between media channels. They walk down the street checking news, sorting out who will pick up the kids and chatting to friends in different countries. It is a world that only a few predicted 10 years ago. In a society of media abundance, it is clear that people channel and self select the media they consume and reference a global community for purchases that range from milk to cars.

People don't think in channels and some of the better agencies and brands don't either. This is the age of the great story. Great campaigns have stories that speak to people and compel them to tell their friends. Two days later the story will appear in the main stream media and drive a second wave of interest. You will see iterations of the story across all media and the story will be praised and damned, but people will be talking about it. 

The implications of this new world can be seen daily, from the spectacular growth of the KONY campaign to reputational damage for Tesco T-Shirts. How we manage and influence this world as marketers is driven by technology and accelerated societal change. Companies have to become social organisations that interact in real time with their staff and external audiences to enable constant change. It's a cliché, but change is the new constant and things will not return to the pre 2007 status quo. The recession knocked down some shaky walls. 

So, what do we call this new marketing world? I don't think it matters because by the time we all agree on a name it will have changed again.