David Armano, Creative VP at Digitas, just published a great article on Business Week. He starts out by making the point that we are all consumers in all aspects of our life, so how do you market to all of us these days…?

His proposal — become a conversation architect (great concept, btw). We need to facilitate the exchange of information, create affinity around brands and communities, and ultimately let the medium drive the message.

I love the sound of this! Here’s a great excerpt from the article that just nails the shift in the mental state that needs to happen:

Consider the example of a typical creative brief template, which usually says something like, “What are we trying to communicate?” Can you see the old-world residue in the word “communicate”? It lacks the dimensions of experiencing something and having an ongoing two-way dialogue. “What are we trying to communicate?” implies a one-way conversation. Maybe we should ask ourselves: “How can we facilitate?”

Enter eNeighbors.

For decades, since the inception of homeowners associations, there have always been a select few (i.e. the board of directors) that communicate in a one-way manner with the remainder of the community residents. Sure, there are meetings where all are invited, but who actually shows up? And how many?

The greatness of eNeighbors lies in the ability to facilitate a conversation between not only the board members and the rest of the residents but between the residents themselves, and at the same time allowing that conversation to happen at any time day or night within the convenience of your own home.

I know… why hasn’t anyone done this before? Well, we have now. Feel free to converse amongst yourselves.