The Digital Branding Iron: The Advertization of Me! Pt. 3

Part 3: “Me Today, Brand Tomorrow?”

“Playtime in the Playpen”

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There is no commercial message etched on our hearts, minds or digital DNA… yet. The situations and online contexts we find ourselves in, whether we acknowledge it or not,  subtly change our digital psyche.  The interspace of digital life stretches beyond our own digital reflections of ourselves.

It is impossible to be precious about our digital “selves” in the Me-Zone; all digital property and content is open to use by all and sundry, regardless of what the law may say. Our spiel,  in videos, words, sounds and pictures, reverberates and bounces off the social media/network walls on an endless journey of communal montage and re-use. However, this “commune” activity belies the fact that we’re intimately hooked on the exchange of direct transmissions. This “tiny” addictive detail is the Achilles heal of those would-be evangelical ad-messengers; plaguing them with an “ugly appendage” that alerts us to their “interventionist” shenanigans. This  “ugly appendage” is a price tag that shouts to us “gimme your cash!” and this message has unsurprisingly fallen on deaf ears; it’s obviously not the way to win “friends” and “followers”.

Traditionally, “commerce” just talks “at” us which used to be called “engaging with your audience”. Times and mediums have changed. “Commerce” has a serious vested interest in infiltrating our social circles and “socialising” with us but it needs a “vehicle” to do so. Marshall McLuhan‘s well worn motto “the medium is the message” still stands in the digital age with one significant difference in application; the message is interactive. Thus in order to harness the power of the digital age the “interactivity” of the “medium” has to be  exposed and exploited to produce the message; seemingly a concept more easily said than understood in the the commercial world of would-be ad-messengers.

What does it mean to let us be “interactive” with the message?  It means giving us a caged playpen to “interact” with and “play” in. This caged playpen simply allows us to figure out palatable ways to hang ourselves; for us to volunteer and expose everything needed not only to make us buy but to keep us buying. Once the “playpen” is up and running (providing us with a “community” of the like-minded), customised “toys” will be built and provided to us so we can supply a ready stream of data for analysis i.e. our “interaction” e.g. conversation that reveals what makes us feel good and the things and activities that will continue to make us feel good in the playpen. Then  to obtain more demographic/data mining material e.g. identifying information and to make this activity not only palatable but desirable, new and more exciting customised playpen toys will be offered to us. However, we will understand that we can’t play with this toy or this toy won’t be “useful” unless we give away details about ourselves regarding X…. Finally, as with all well managed playpens, those of us that have been “good” in the playpen will be encouraged and rewarded accordingly; those of us who rampantly “interact”, those that give suggestions for new data-extracting toys, those who contribute to data that profiles customer base and those of us who are “influencers” and bring new friends to the playpen will be elevated in playpen status.

“Commerce” owns your playpen “activity” and you’ll be back for more, as you can’t conceive of anywhere else to play. “Commerce” has supplied you with their branding machine, a digital playpen. You will be identified by and become your playpen “activity” and that activity burns the brand into your digital psyche giving you a sense of ownership; you make it your own. You will become a “brand evangelist” without even realising it. You will defend, nurture and protect it. You speak it, breath it, interact and play with it. You can’t see it, hear it, smell, taste or touch it. In fact, it is invisible to you.

Why? Because you are the brand and it is you.

Without you there is no digital brand; you are the medium and the message. We all become brand evangelist supremos of the digital world. The brand identifies who you are, and you brandish your “brand” proudly to the world because it is you.

Congratulations! You stand as unequaled, unmatched and unparalleled testament to the brand. Why? Because you’re so  incredibly ordinary and banal, you appeal to all those just like you. “Commerce” has given you permission, with a brand, a badge, to say you are all the things you want to be…  all things desirable. “Brand” gives you your dream credentials.  However, “commerce” has just flattered your ego. The truth is that every time you parade that “brand” it quietly screams you’re a loser. Beware, in the playpen everyone can  be a delusively happy sucker but you’ll shiver and blush in your emperor’s clothing when someone like me points out you’re a naked sheeple.

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dmojo
(What do I do for a living? I knit jumpers for sheeple.)

©Dmojo, 2008-2009.