Social Media has been steadily gaining acceptance amongst traditional marketers as an integral part of their marketing mix. Still, the importance of a Big Announcement such as the recent headline: “Pepsi Cancels Superbowl Advertising for Social Media” seems to somehow add the final stamp of legitimacy to the medium. We can expect marketing managers to point to this headline in their planning meetings as a mandate to formalize their Social Media Programs. See the recent piece from Forrester: Pepsi Refresh and What It Means to Marketers.

Pepsi Co. has always been smart about seizing the right moment in time for this type of announcement. In 2001, I worked with atmosphereBBDO on the Doritos brand, owned by Pepsi Co. We made headlines by persuading Doritos to shift their media spending from the Supwerbowl to digital marketing. In place of the million dollar TV spots, we encouraged them to build a branded micro-site including viral video program, and a renegade unbranded microsite around the campaign character. The AdAge headline was, “Doritos Abandons Super Bowl For Internet: Will Triple Spending for Online Advertising”

From an agency perspective, the Doritos program was critical towards bringing other big brands into the Digital space, and, importantly, getting them to think about digital media in the same context as their traditional print and TV campaigns. In retrospect, this shift spelled the eventual doom for many of the so-called internet hot-shops that had been the early movers in digital marketing. As the medium grew in importance and spending, the clients turned to their trusted brand stewards at the big agencies. The internet shops who recognized the changing environment quickly attached themselves to big agencies or holding companies.

In the same way you can be sure agencies can now expect to spend much of their time discussing the role of Social Media with their clients. As traditional agencies are faced with reduced media and production budgets we can expect Social Media to move away from the realm of “Social Media Gurus & Consultants” and become a more integral part of the complete marketing mix.