There’s a debate now going on in the marketing world as to whether Marketing 1.0 (traditional advertising) is dead compared to Marketing 2.0 (Internet); or is that dead now that there’s Marketing 3.0 (social media).

Or is it all of the above. Or none of the above.

I get the feeling that while the proponents of one side are battling it out with advocates of another, the real question is left completely unanswered: what’s the Big Idea?

It’s ideas that drive people to act, not headlines, not fancy Flash animation, not even the Tweet-of-the-moment. People buy because they look to improve their lives, make pain go away, find a better future, satisfy their egos, or make the world better. That’s where the focus needs to be, not whether to add a new page on Facebook.

Here’s what I mean.

A few years ago, one of our clients, a Jewish cemetery, mentioned that they had a special repository for holy books. It’s Jewish tradition that books with the name of God be buried, not burned or destroyed. So synagogues would send damaged prayer books and Torah scrolls to the cemetery for burial. We thought this was a beautiful tradition and would give people a reason to come out to the cemetery that had nothing to do with death. It would also give local religious schools a reason to teach the role of the cemetery in Jewish life. Out of this we created a special book-burial prayer service, arranged for synagogues and religious schools to bring their students out to participate in the event, and developed a new curriculum dealing with end-of-life transitions. We used ads, press releases, flyers and phone calls to produce and publicize the events.

This was a big Idea brought to life. It touched families, schools, synagogues and the local community.

The media that we chose to promote these events were a product of the Idea, not the other way around!

As you develop your marketing for 2010, plan to let ideas drive the program. Don’t just take those old “Caring Since 1955” ads and translate them to the Web. Ask, what’s an Idea that can connect consumers to us? What are consumers missing that we can provide them? What programs can we offer that will get the attention of the local press? Be idea-centric and you’ll find much more valuable marketing solutions that can make every dollar go three times farther.

That’s the big idea.