Adjacent Social Objects == Gonzo Marketing

Chris Locke, after co-authoring the Cluetrain Manifesto, went on to write a great book called Gonzo Marketing. Wicked unlucky for him, the book was released on October 1, 2001 – kind of a bad season for US commerce. The book gets mixed reviews – sometimes because it’s somewhat dated, but primarily for the writing style, which I’ll call brash for lack of a better word – but the key takeaway for me was the idea of indirect benefit.
The idea is that a company sponsors an online service/community/project, one which is related in some way to their business, but does no direct selling there. It’s all about providing value, for which people thank you by buying your product or service. So rather than pushing mass-market stuff through broadcast, you do something cool to enable people to enjoy using your product.
Today come Social Objects. I’ve read and thought about this for about a year, but haven’t blogged about it, as far as Google knows. I thought I had. Anyway, Rajesh Setty is a smart, thoughtful writer, and today he introduces adjacent social objects. It’s a good post.

Ajdacent Social Objects are those that objects that are not directly related to your product or service but are close – they are in the periphery.

Our own example is a site called All About Steak (which is a site that’s all about steak – recipes, grilling tips etc.) which was built in partnership with Kansas City Steaks. All About Steak is an adjacent social object for Kansas City Steaks.

This is the future of marketing. Rajesh coined a good term for it. Gonzo Marketing provides some important background. And you can always stand to read Cluetrain every five years or so.