“Markets are conversations.”

Well, we all should know that by now and should be putting it in place in all our work. But this statement originated in 1999. Way back when dial up tones were the norm. The statement came from the Cluetrain Manifesto which was way ahead of its time. This report from Technorati and Ogilvy revisits that manifesto and shows how to put it into place when you get into work on a Monday.

What I like is that there are some real examples of conversational marketing, social media, call it what you will. And how they worked and why. These case studies cover:

• An Inconvenient Truth
• Microsoft sponsored Live Earth site
• Shut up and sing campaign
• Scion and the Indie film community
• Sun microsystems

There’s a nice diagram too for finding, concentrating and syndicating conversations (above) and we all like more pictures, less words in any document.

I’m not sure it was necessary to devote a half page to a proposed conversational advertising code of conduct considering the one word that springs to mind and sings from the page is “transparency”. And somewhat disagree that “the real spoken language of peers is so much more interesting than copywriting.” Not if you have a good copywriter and they’re released from any corporate and legal shackles.

But well worth a read first thing on a Monday to get the old grey matter warmed up.

Found via Greg Verdino.