Marketing 2.0 is a natural outgrowth of Web 2.0 as it refers to the transformation of marketing resulting from the network effect of the Internet. Marketing 2.0 represents a dramatic shift in marketing to account for customers researching and buying goods and services independent of advertising and marketing campaigns and messages. With broadband as the new utility in the household and at work, customers now make decisions on their own terms, relying - in seconds - on friends, family, colleagues, and other trusted networks to form opinions.

Where traditional advertising and marketing is based on key messages and support points in an attempt to force a purchase decisions, Marketing 2.0 is based on authentic, real content used to fuel conversations and purchase decisions in a manner that allows the customer to draw their own conclusions. Traditional media may be used in Marketing 2.0 - online and offline - but media is used to talk about content, not brand or product positioning. "Creative concepts" are left behind in favor of "content concepts."

This shift has dramatic implications for how marketing gets created. For marketing agencies - the communications consultants to their clients - it means relying on a different process, skills, and set of deliverables in order to brand, engage, and sell to customers. The process puts content front and center as the means to engage the market. Required skills now include editorial, documentary, gaming, and other content-related capabilities rather than copywriting, art direction, and creative direction. Deliverables now include content and the ability to promote content rather than brand and product creative concepts. Promoting the content may also include participating in social networks in a fully disclosed, credible fashion.

For marketing organizations, it means aliging with communications agencies that put content at the center of what they do or driving similar process, skill set, and deliverable changes with an in-house service.

With Marketing 2.0, messages don't matter. It's about fueling purchase decisions rather than forcing them. And the future belongs to crowds.

Examples of Marketing 2.0
Marketing 2.0 is about turning transactions into interactions and interruptions into integrations. Here are some examples of what that translates into: