Quote of the day: Rob Walker

Marie and I went to the PSFK mini-event on Friday celebrating Rob Walker's new book Buying In.  He brings home some of the key issues connected to what we do here at our little planning shop.  The importance of culture - understanding it is key to how brands will need to grow in this new era.  He also shared a great impromptu quote that reflects some of my own caution when it comes to some of the technology hyperbole in post-dot-com-thinking...referring to the impact of social networks...

"I wouldn't call adding Obama to your Facebook friends activism exactly"

Culture and people come before technology.  This is crucial for brands to understand today.  Especially if they want to integrate a digital strategy. The "network" is the people - Facebook is just one facilitator of it.   Sometimes we forget that. We need to look for people that are actually doing something.  Sometimes the technology makes it far too easy to wash over the real behavior and celebrate the easy and inconsequential.  I think the audience did not expect to hear this.