Brands started speaking and I like it.

Have you realized that most great campaigns include a brilliant long format video that people want to share? Dove Real Beauty, Always Like a Girl, PG Thank you Mom and much more.

They are all different but have one thing in common: they all say something important. Something more important than what a product does. But why do all these companies spend a lot of production money to say something that is only slightly, if at all, related to the actual things they sell?

In the last century most advertising was about a rational or emotional benefit. Now, because of the internet and especially social media, telling people something about your product is not enough. Research has proven that personal recommendation has the strongest influence on brand preference, and this is exactly what social media sharing does. When a friend shares something with you it's definitely more important than any company selling a product on a billboard.

And fortunately, people share whatever they think is worth sharing. You can't go to a media agency and tell them: I want all the people who see my message to share it, how much is the bill? This is why brands have had to come out of their comfort zones and let people know what they think. In other words, today a brand must behave like a brand, and not like a product. People share stories, yes, but not any kinds of stories. If a brand wants to compete with everything on the net and not only with the commercials in the block, there is only one choice: say something that touches people.

Recently a client asked me about viral videos. I said nobody will ever be able to create a recipe for them, especially if you want to be the next Ice Bucket Challenge. But of course, there are some learnings from previous cases that we can take into consideration. Briefly, you have to do a film that is "extremely whatever". Whatever can be anything: funny, emotional, surprising, cool, it doesn't matter. But if you don't do it extremely, you won't see the shares.

This is the dream of every creative person. I can already see it happening. Day by day, week by week, we have a better chance of creating stuff that says something important instead of just explaining the product benefit. Clients are more and more aware that they can't engage people just by asking them to comment on their informational print ad scanned and put on facebook.

So, let me say a big thank you to social media. My job has become a lot more enjoyable and I hope the results will also be more entertaining, thought-provoking or simply more interesting for people than a few years ago. Sometimes when I am in an optimistic mood, I can even believe that in the future brands can help make the world a better place.