Page 199 - Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the World

190 The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the World

Ad, fad, mad or tetrad?

What is enhanced?

McLuhan argues a new media must have global impact and enhance what
was there before. Social clearly provides power to the collective in a whole
new way. The contents of this book make that obvious.

What is obsolesced?

Postcards? Letter writing? Perhaps these two types of messaging are actually
going to be more valued in the future as a result, but one clear question from
this book is whether or not individuals require power to achieve authority. Is
it, in fact, the getting of power that is being obsolesced by social media?

What has this new medium borrowed from media
already made obsolete?

The days of having a pen pal seem long gone – is that what has happened
here? Pen-pal protocol has been dusted off and relaunched as social media?
Or do we go further back to the fireside and the born-again art of
storytelling?

What will this new medium reverse into?

In our last book we predicted the rise of the personal search engine. We also
predicted the creation of celebrity search engines. Perhaps we have yet to
see the medium that will encompass all of the above or maybe it is already
chiming in our pocket bursting to be reversed into – consequently we don’t
see any point in testing whether or not mobile is going to be a commercial
success, do you?

So here we are, busy dispensing with old media stuff like telephones and
cables, and unshackling ourselves to explore this new world. Mobiles are now
our constant sidekicks, helping us stay connected and engaged with the