empty13

Today I want to talk about empty13, the campaign that aims to bring together communication experts from different fields for a stimulating debate. But what is it all about?

The campaign was launched by Bite Communications on 19th July 2012 and aims to generate a debate around the lack of 'big events' in 2013 and the meaning this has for brands.

Advertisers, PRPs, journalists, agencies, anyone involved in the industry can join the online conversation using the hash-tag #empty13 on Twitter. The agency opened the @theempty13 account to generate interest and awareness. Moreover, a website was created in order to offer the participants an open space where to discuss in further detail the topic. Anyone can in fact publish a post on the website.

The conversation has already started both on the website and on twitter.

MY OPINION

I find this campaign very clever and stimulating. I really like the idea of an extensive online conversation amongst experts from the different industries and the sense of community this can generate. I am in love with the name 'empty13'; I find it very powerful and memorable. I also believe this campaign can lead to more engaging topics such as the continuous need of generating stories and news for brands and organisations, following the digital revolution. It is not the first 'empty year' for the marketing industry - marketers always need to create new stories around brands. This is an undeniable truth.  It would be sufficient to think of the famous smoking campaign launched by Edward Bernays in the 1920s. It would be interesting to hear how experts feel about this constant need for newsworthy material and how they deal with it in their day-to-day lives.