When I read The Long Tail last year, I was disappointed at what I percieved to be a lack of working through the implications of living in a ‘both/and’, rather than an ‘either/or’ business climate. However, reading the Mr Splashy Pants analysis (briefly; Greenpeace’s campaign was a lot more successful than expected and they didn’t quite have the capacity to deal with it) makes Chris Anderson’s book seem incredibly relevant.
Most online campaigns aren’t going to get this level of attention – over double that predicted – but it’s far more likely in this than in any other kind of marketing you’re going to do. One of the main implications of the new climate is that more marketing departments will have to to plan for the best case scenario in the same way they’d plan for the worst case scenario.