Last week I got to hear a former General Motors advertising consultant talk about his work with the company about 20 years. He was with them from the late 70s through the late 90s as I recall. He referenced the phrase, “As goes GM, so goes the country.” I hadn’t heard that before but with a quick Google search I discovered this phrase has been around for many years. GM’s influence on our country and economy isn’t nearly as strong as it once was, though I’m sure people would debate me on that. Whether or not it’s true some interesting news today out of GM sparked my curiosity…

According to MediaBuyerPlanner.com, GM is putting $1.5 billion (yes, billion) into digital marketing. That’s half their annual marketing budget. GM is the third largest advertiser in the country so the speculation will begin as to whether this will trickle down to significantly smaller marketing budgets as other companies see what GM does and follow their lead.

My hunch is that many of the smaller marketing budgets are already there. In fact, the smallest of marketing budgets…like people who have about $100 in annual marketing budgets, have been there for a while. In my observation it’s the big companies that are getting on board last. Making the shift to digital marketing at the corporate level, however is still big news and quite bold of GM to shift a full 50% of their budget to a medium that some people still question as a practical advertising platform and marketing channel.

I commend GM for what they’re doing and I’m sure this news has already been passed around marketing departments and advertising agencies all over the country by now. Who knows, maybe that old saying will turn out to be true after all.

THEN:

Content was a product.

Content drew people, the people drew advertisers, and the advertisers paid to make more content/product.

Advertisers had to latch onto the content/product because it was the cheapest way to get to the people, and it wasn’t cheap…just cheaper than becoming a content/product itself.

NOW:

Content is still a product.

Content still draws people and still draws advertisers.

Advertisers can now create their own content cheaply. They can broadcast and publish with no need of another content/product as long as they can build their own audience.

CONCLUSION:

• You don’t have to pay $100/month for a small ad in the Yellow Pages.
• You don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to be in a local coupon booklet.
• You don’t have to pay a thousand dollars for a full page ad in the newspaper.
• You don’t have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for television commercials.

Still not sure? Check out Rhett & Link. They’re a product. Their content is their product. Their product is their content. General Motors saw their content/product and hired them. Who might buy your product if you start getting into the content business and out of advertising?