Behind all the talk and acronyms lies a simple truth: the need to transform marketing from a one-way monologue into a dialogue with customers and the people who influence them. There's been a lot of talk about this. Time made "you" person of the year. Ad Age made "the consumer" agency of the year. Bob Garfield wrote (years ago) about "listenomics." More recent articles by Jon Fine in BusinessWeek and Jonah Bloom in Ad Age agree that that real issue is the increasing voice of the consumer but (re)assure us that most ads will continue to cost a lot more than $13.

To me, one of the most obvious truths is that experiences where customers interact with products and brands face to face are always, at some level, "user generated" -- and therefore should be an increasingly important (though by no means the only) way in which brands touch and engage their customers. Experiences are an opportunity to listen as well as talk, to gain insights both actively (by soliciting feedback) and passively (by simply watching how people use your products). Critically, they're also an important place to inspire customers to talk to others about your brand -- thereby generating still more "user generated" content.

(Our research has shown that live experiences generate word of mouth at a higher rate than other marketing media.)

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