Ad Rant

Lot of talking during the Social Media Mashup on the "death of advertising", on agencies and clients that "don't get it".  Sweeeeeeeet.

For starters, could we please stop calling people "Consumers"?  It's inhuman. distancing.  And no-one can afford to be distanced anymore.

Second, what the hell do we mean when we say "advertising"?  Most folks think of "advertising" as the bulk of interruptive, irritating, mediocre and/or forgettable brand messages served like a tepid gruel through your eyeballs and ears.  And we aren't helping folks with '360 marketing'...when you get an average of between 3-5,000 brand impressions daily, finding another way to pelt people during their "me" time ain't the best idea.  it's like seeing someone drowning and tossing them a cinder block when they finally come up for air.  Unwise.

But good advertising, great advertising, isn't crap.  It's persuasion.  And it's pervasive.  It's...ah..."pervuasive".  As a species we advertise all the time.  For jobs, sex, attention.  The clothes you wear, the friends you hang with, the ring(s) on your finger, the tats and the hairstyle - everything is a chosen element of brand 'you'.  Yep, 'you', the original, one-to-many, mobile, social media unit

All the hand wringing about mobile advertising, e.g., "is it intrusive?  will people accept ads in their mobile experiences? blah blah blah blah", misses the point.  Those questions start from the assumption that mobile 'advertising' will be just like advertising units we already know, but in your pocket.  And if it is, let me tell you, it WILL SUCK.  SUCK.  SUCK. BIG time.

Mobile is a new socio/cultural/technical phenomenon.  Why the hell does anyone assume display ads (read: banners) are the right way to go to convey a message in a medium we don't understand yet?  Couple reasons - (a) existing structures don't scale well to new processes - they are scaled to handle old ones; (b)too often old school ad revenue is used to justify new tech startups to VC's because we have great models using old numbers to generate profit forecasts and valuations.   And "if we can just get a percentage of current traditional ad spend", we'll all be richer than Midas, right?  But how do you generate revenue models for a disruptive technology, when by definition, it changes the rules of the game?

C'mon.

Why do we use CPM's online?  CPM's are a MAGAZINE METRIC.  Mommy, please make the badman stop.

We saw a bunch of presentations at the Mashup.  You know what created the emotional connection?  The Optimus Whale cameraphone spot, and 'a few good advertising men'.  Ads.  Made by agencies.  That aren't dead.  Because emotional connection matters.  TV doesn't solve everything, but a great piece of video/film can be a solid way to deliver an emotionally connecting/provocative brand experience.  In the meantime, we are all still working our butts off to create the genre-defining interactive heart stoppers.

The real challenge we have is not to create "ads" in "social media", but to create real value for the people who interact with our brands regardless of medium.

We don't reflect culture - we create it.  Henry Ford once said: "if I asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse".

Fail Forward Harder.

Comments

[Campfiresteve]

What we are talking about with the "New Marketing" is experiences, not "things."

I do like a great spot or print ad, but geeze, they are rarely an experience.

And that whale thing with all the hot models running down to the beach to push a godamn whale back into the sea. Gimme a fucking break. Pure unadulterated treackle...uh, treakle?

[deb]

I knew there was a reason we hit it off - keep ranting man!

Agree with ti all but why does 'persuasion' still feel icky - ok - call me on it have I drunk the cool-aid? [yes, cool with a "C" - you know what I mean] My post coming soon..;)