Twitter DM
Pro: Short. Good signal/noise ratio (except auto DMs). Not real time. Easy introduction medium. Good for cutting through the clutter of email.
Con: The Auto DM
Verdict: Best Communication Medium in The Universe

Instant Message
Pro: Great for real time, online conversation. High adoption.
Con: They know you’re there when you start IMing back.
Verdict: A personal favorite of mine, but once someone knows you’re around, you’re stuck. Hard to disappear/ignore/get back to someone when they know you’re sitting right there.

Email
Pro: Good for long, detailed messages. Permanently recorded. Not real time.
Con: Have you seen your inbox lately? Exactly.
Verdict: Oh email, savior of our age. The problem is that people’s inboxes are so overflowing that the signal to noise ratio is getting bad fast. Good but not great.

Phone
Pro: Not location specific. High participation rate. A step beyond written communication.
Con: Real time can be a problem when you don’t want to talk to someone.
Verdict: It’s up there. Hard to imagine life without the cell phone anymore. Don’t believe me? Run any episode of Seinfeld and give them cell phones. Kills half the jokes/scenarios.

Land Line
Pro: Get to talk in your PJ’s.
Con: Have to be home.
Verdict: Do people still use these? Really?

Morse Code
Pro: Able to send messages long distances. Keeps communication secret from spies.
Con: You have to freaking know Morse Code.
Verdict: Not bad – if you want to give the coordinates of an enemy submarine, I guess.

Carrier Pigeon
Pro: “Smart” message delivery. No minimum wage.
Con: Message limited to what you can physically attach to a pigeon. Possibility of looking like a hermit/conspiracy theorist while owning pigeons.
Verdict: Aside from owning pigeons, keeping pigeons, feeding pigeons, training pigeons, and attaching things to pigeons, it’s not that bad really.

Smoke Signals
Pro: Long distance. High badass-factor.
Con: Fire hazard. Not the best for indoor communication.
Verdict: I wouldn’t attempt without adult/Apache supervision.

Fax Machine
Pro: Able to send complex print documents anywhere in the world.
Con: That sound! It sounds like an electronic cat hopped up on Red Bull and trapped in a cardboard box.
Verdict: Occasionally useful, but my guess is email attachment is going to kill the fax.

Tin Cans & String
Pro: Cheap to obtain/make. Cute.
Con: For some reason it doesn’t work unless you’re six years old or homeless.
Verdict: I’m not sure this even works. Whose idea was this in the first place?

Bike Courier
Pro: Able to deliver larger physical objects. Faster than a larger delivery service for short ranges.
Con: Spandex and attitude.
Verdict: If you need those designs across town NOW!

Boom Box Serenade
Pro: High visibility. Large audience. Ability to work Billy Idol into everyday communication.
Con: High crazy factor.
Verdict: I’m guessing this has it’s applications, but no one needs “Rebel Yell” at 9:30 on a Monday.

Length shows intelligence and depth.

Make sure you use a little of both.

First off, if you haven’t seen Paul Isakson’s The Future of Advertising + Marketing, then do it. Now.

A recent post from Paul talks about how a former CD at Urban Outfitters is moving to Anomaly. The best stuff is towards the end when he says “As more and more advertising gets ignored, agencies have got to come up with better, more meaningful ways to help their clients reach and connect with people.” and then wraps it up with “Maybe the title of the post should have been, “The Future of Advertising Is More Than Communications.”

And speaking of communications, the Conversation Agent, Valeria Maltoni had a great post about RSS, Email, and the whole push vs. pull argument. She talks about how, “It is so much better when you have people sign up voluntarily, when they choose to pull your content and give you permission to occupy a space in their reader and day.”

Both are great ideas. Here’s where things get interesting:

In the middle.

If the future of advertising and marketing is more than communications, and the next step in communications is based on “pull”, then the future is a place where more than just communication is “pulled”. This could be design, production, interaction, delivery, or any other part of the process. All on demand.

How would things change if we could “pull” something like design, and get something how we wanted it, when we wanted it?