The Art of Dabbling

Written May 10

My son loves going to arcades. It's always interesting to watch his patterns in one of those places. Over the course of an hour, he will bounce around and try several games. But the majority of his time is typically spent with a few (highly violent) favorites.

This is what it feels like to be in marketing today. We have become dabblers in a world awash with choices. Just a few weeks ago, MediaPost ran a story about Heinz Ketchup's national contest for a consumer-generated commercial. They received about 3,000 entries, with the winning entrant receiving $57,000 for his spot. The spot was posted on YouTube and may, or may not, see the light of national television. Nice story for Heinz Ketchup. But effective brand marketing?

I'm not against dabbling. In fact, I'm not sure we have much of a choice but to dabble as there is not enough research or understanding to support any one "new medium." And agencies are just as intimidated by the entire enterprise as their clients. Dabbling is safe. Perhaps not very effective, but safe.

Still, like my son in the arcade, we tend to gravitate back to those things we know and trust once our need to dabble has been satisfied. Even when we're not 100% certain that those things we trust are terribly effective.

Do you think it's OK to dabble?