Al Gore – David Suzuki And The Inconvenient Truth Of It All

Last year I was extremely moved by the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, where Al Gore delivered his now-Oscar-Winning presentation on climate control. Shortly thereafter, I was approached by a friend (thanks Jeffrey) to get involved with Les Amis of the David Suzuki Foundation. As many of you know, I am a staunch believer in helping out community as much as possible and although free time to donate towards another community organization was not available, I have moved things around and got myself involved in this very important organization.
Coming to Montreal on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 is a conference being put on by some Concordia University students where both Al Gore and David Suzuki will be speaking. The event is already very sold out, but Les Amie of the David Suzuki Foundation have arranged for a pre-event lunch as well as reserved seating for the Suzuki and Gore presentation. The luncheon will also feature some interesting content and this would be a great pre-amble to The Power Within Montreal event featuring Bill Clinton, Anthony Robbins, and more.
So why this Blog posting and how is this relevant to Marketers?
If you look at both the success of the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and the true issue of winning the battle against our current climate crisis, it’s all about word of mouth marketing and leveraging the digital channels (social networks in particular) to get the word out, get people to see the movie and then getting each and every one of us to do one or two things differently in our lives. These macro issues are broken down into micro-chunks where each one of us can leverage some component of social media to make a difference.
How does that work?
If I change one or two of the lightbulbs in my house from incandescent to fluorescent and write this one Blog post in hopes of inspiring you to make a similar change, everyone wins. This speaks volumes to the power of social media because the message no longer has to come from Al Gore (although, as we saw in the movie, it doesn’t hurt)… the real message comes (and is spread) by each one of us. We’re continually leveraging this newly-found real power that we’ve got through social media.
The brand power is mixed up in the value of the message with the power of the personal brand and matched with who is connected to this personal brand. It’s enabling newer forms of communications and much more marketing messages to get through just as we had hoped for. The right message at the right time to the right person (remember that promise?). The only addition to the equation is that the “right person” is also creating the content, adding to it and spreading it (by both word of mouth and through social media) with their own unique spin and delivery.
Welcome to the new confusion.
If you’re interested in attending the luncheon and then the event with Al Gore and David Suzuki, drop me a line and I would be happy to get you in touch with the right people. The climate issue is one each of us can change and make a difference in. If that’s not the most similar link to marketing and the power of social media as well, I don’t know what is.