The Allegory of the Cave centres around a group of prisoners that have spent their lives completely disconnected from the outside world. They live chained to a wall, assigning meaning to shadows cast on the blank walls they face. The only one who is able to determine that the shadows are not absolutely real is the prisoner that escapes the cave. He returns to share his experience of new truth. It’s a Greek story, so you can probably imagine that he ended up paying for it in a nasty way!

I think of this parable when I think about the communication revolution that is upon us. People in any industry with a “steady as she goes” mentality are the ones who are the ones staring at the shadows on the walls. Those who have escaped know inherently that you can’t just add “digital” to a list of media. Not anymore.

I’m treading familiar territory when I state that we live in an on-demand digital culture. It has struck hard at the music industry and film community. My family’s TV consumption comes through our computers, iPads and Netflix on my PS3. It’s entirely on demand. So much so that my boys have pretty much stopped watching “TV” entirely.

That brings us to the business of persuasion. I previously wrote about the concept of on-demand advertising. While we can’t fully satisfy the “when we want it” theory, I believe there are ways to implement the “where we want it.” I’ll share some of my own conclusions, and I hope that it doesn’t get me killed like that guy in the cave.

1. Creative alone cannot save you.

The current thought is that the “big idea” is the most important part of a successful campaign. The trouble is, not all ideas can play well in any medium. Creative concepts are something to add to the marketing mix. They still play a huge role in audience outreach, but they aren’t a solve-all superhero. You can only make a full emotional connection by understanding where your audience is and what they are doing.

2. Advertising’s new role is to make a social connection with the audience.
That isn’t to say that this is an article about how everyone should be on Facebook. But if advertising is intended to win a consumer over to the point of recommending a product or service to a friend, you realize that the facilitation of word of mouth is just as important as the brand message.

3. There’s no such thing as general audiences.
Connecting emotionally is important, but nuanced behaviour is just as important. As advertisers, our first order of business should be to break down our “demographics.” We can’t lump 19-35 year old males into one group.  There is more than one cultural thread that ties people to a brand.  What we need to do before any campaign is find one or two cultural threads that tie that group together.  And it can’t be something broad like “hockey” as every region or group celebrates larger cultural phenomena in different ways.  It needs to be more fundamental than that.

4. Everyone is creative.

According to Seth Godin’s book “Linchpin: Are you Indispensable?”, our creativity is trained out of us in our school systems. As children all we have is our imagination, and all we do is build and break.  Create and destroy.  Well, at least here in Canada that is no longer the case.  From my own experiences, I believe that children are no longer taught compliance and regurgitation but are encouraged to think critically and creatively.  The result is an emerging workforce of creative and critical thinkers. Agencies that embrace this are given a real competitive advantage.

Everyone in an agency – from creative teams and studio to strategists – have a responsibility to think about how what they are making will be used, and whether it will create the real social connections that our brands need.

What we want consumers to “take away” should be secondary to taking the time to delve into who we are talking to and what they want to talk about. When your consumer feels like you are willing to listen to them, talk about their hobbies, desires and organizations they want to support, they will be much more open to hearing about the  marketing message of their brand.

We need to educate and work closely with our clients to help them understand the changing landscape of society, the market and communication.  These shifts affect way more than advertising.  They will affect every industry and every market, as the power behind communication and distribution spreads.

A few weeks back, we caught up with some of the world’s leading digital thinkers at FITC 2011. We asked some questions. Had some laughs. And made some videos to share with Big Orange Slide readers. Here’s the first installment, with Tali Krakowsky and Jason Theodor.

Before I get started, I want to be clear: there isn’t only one way to leverage social media for a brand, but it applies to all brands.

In the 1950s, a man named Sam Walton ran a general discount store called Walton’s Five and Dime.  Sam had a simple strategy, and with it had built a good track record for running successful retail establishments: undercut his competitors on price, and deliver unparalleled customer service.

See, Sam knew that the key to retail in the 50s and 60s was personal relationships. Barbers, doctors and general store owners would be on a first-name basis with their core customers. It sounds a little “Leave it to Beaver,” but honest-to-goodness understanding of the customer was integral to business. Sam got that. That’s why Wal-Mart has greeters.

Anyone who runs a business still ostensibly knows that strong relationships are good for business. Even on a B2B basis, sharing a few beers with a client now and again breeds a familiarity that allows both parties to have uncomfortable conversations at a later date, without damaging the business relationship. But as brands continue to explode in size, a meaningful relationship with the end consumer can be challenging to sustain.  It’s not just about the relationship at point of purchase.

Every one of us has felt railroaded by the dreaded “I’m sorry sir, that is our policy.” Anyone who has spent any time in the service industry intimately knows the effect those words can have on a consumer who is obviously looking for a solution. When a client of ours has a problem, our first order of business is to solve it.  Sometimes that means bending or even breaking internal policies around timelines, billing or scheduling. In fact, while I was Director of Production, a flagged issue was met with a question: “Is the client happy?”

For lack of a better term “shit happens.” But while the shit gets fixed, it’s still possible to ensure that your client feels taken care of.

If a consumer has a strong relationship with a brand, they will be more likely to excuse a poor experience and maintain the relationship.

So how do brands build that relationship?  Social Media is currently the most powerful tool, and is also the easiest to implement. It’s not just about flipping the marketing funnel. While Joseph Jaffe advocates leveraging key influencers through social media to maximize your marketing budgets, I would suggest that to be a top-down approach to a bottom-up medium. The “socialness” of Social Media comes from the consumers, who would be far happier with access to key influencers within the company.

Let’s look at two brands that have taken similar approaches to maintaining their consumer relationships: ironically, Apple and Adobe. Apple has recently been named the most valuable brand in the world, and yet they seem to avoid the ire of the anti-capitalism movement.  Why? They have Steve Jobs. Jobs seems bulletproof, saying what he wants, when he wants with little consequence. However secretive he may be about his product, Steve is accessible. Anyone can email him and anything can happen in the industry, and chances are Jobs will have a quip in response. Sure, it’ll likely be the type of thing that would send most PR managers onto the ledge, but it’s a genuine connection with his brand stewards and loyal customers.

Meanwhile, Adobe has a very liberal approach to corporate-consumer relations, handing their key influencers the keys to the city. Brand managers to evangelists, advocates to community forums, all have influence over the offerings the company produces. Adobe has even plucked some their influencers and handed them jobs.

Both of these companies have developed a zealot-like brand following, which frankly makes the clash between these two silicon giants that much more entertaining.

All brands can achieve this level of relationship with their consumers with two keys strategies:

1)   Allow direct access

It could be a Twitter account or blog posts, but the heads of departments, and executive members of a company should participate in social media. These senior members of your company should be prepared to have real conversations with their clients and consumers.

2)   Empower outreach

Create a group of community managers within your company, and/or hire an agency or PR firm with real social media experience. Then have key influencers in your company meet with these managers on a regular basis, and give them real seniority to influence the direction of the company.

Some might think giving consumers that much access to your company could be dangerous, but we aren’t talking about divulging business strategies. What we are talking about is forging the same respectful relationship that a consumer might have at a Mom & Pop establishment. Put the human face back onto your company or corporation. Remind the average consumer that your company is a collection of people, and not a large, faceless machine.

That is how social media can be used for brands, and why all brands should use it.  It is the ability for large brands to develop personal relationships with consumers, and to create a brand loyalty that transcends expected points of interaction.