UX Central Weekly #5

I always look forward to Gerry McGovern’s weekly New Thinking posts. This week he writes about how a general collapse in trust by people when it comes to organisations and brands is a good thing:

For too long people have placed blind trust in organizations and brands, which has only led to manipulation and abuse. Society is now entering a new phase of healthy skepticism. Advertising and marketing are at a cross-roads today. Originally, much of marketing and advertising was to raise awareness. But, today, people are very much aware. That’s why they search. They want detail, they want facts, they want something that at least approaches the truth.

The result? People are avoiding advertising like the plague. You are as likely to get hit by lightning as you are to click on a banner ad. And what’s the response of the advertising industry? Native advertising, which is advertising that does its very best to fool the customer into thinking it’s not advertising.

Blind trust is gone. And gone with it are the traditional models of advertising, marketing and communication. Today, we trust in use. Social media is not me and my brands. It’s me and my friends.