All Great Marketing Exists Within a Bubble

David Letterman sat across from Bill Gates during an interview in 1995, and asked him, “What the hell is [internet] exactly?” Bill Gates went on to explain that it was a place where information could be published in real time, and where you could send electronic mail to someone in a matter of seconds, instead of days. Letterman went on to make a joke about the first baseball audio broadcast that was streamed on the internet. “Does radio ring a bell?” he cracked, much to everyone’s amusement, including Bill Gates’. 

And isn’t this just how things go? When the internet gained traction in American culture, people thought of it as some nerdy joke. When YouTube launched in 2005, people prodded, “who wants to watch your home videos, anyway?” When Facebook came out, people saw it as something just for college kids to message each other. Instagram and Snapchat were for high schoolers to take pictures of their food. Even I made fun of TikTok when it first gained popularity. 

People are always going to reject emerging platforms simply because they’re unfamiliar. They’ll try to make you feel stupid or juvenile for investing time and energy into new platforms. They’ll say that social media is just a bubble, and the bubble will burst soon. But here’s the thing: all great marketing exists within a bubble. 

I’ll say it again. All great marketing exists within a bubble. And the people who show up first to these new platforms reap the rewards in a big way. Then, everyone who was making fun starts to run to the new platform–and that’s what causes the bubble to burst. 

Smart marketers know that what worked last year won’t work this year. And if they can find a way to bring value in a space where people really want to be, they’re going to win big. So shake off the naysayers. Keep paving the way on the emerging platforms. Everyone will be following you next year. 

P.S. If you’re interested in a related idea, check out my post about The Timeline of Interest in Advertising.