There is Hope for the Advertising World

It39s commonly said that advertisers get the advertising they deserve If they engage in the process with an open mind and enthusiasm they39re likely to see better results than those who see advertising expenditures as a cost that needs to be reducedOver the years I39ve come across loads of examples of both and can ensure you that the aphorism holdsThe first green shoot is the reemergence of the involved advertiser This creature has been in hiding delegating responsibilities to a toxic mix of huge platforms with something to sell amp8212 including unheardof quantities of data to support virtually any theory and justify any results amp8212 and media agencies that have been focusing on shall we say the negotiation end of the taskIt39s wellknown that advertisers have not always been that engaged with the media end of the business but that39s changed amp8212 or at the very least is changing You can take your pick as to whether Jon Mandel Marc Pritchard the WFA the ANA or ISBA can take the credit but that doesn39t really matterWhen online anything was still very new I remember David Pattison the quotPquot in the media agency network PHD and the first media guy to be president of agency trade body IPA making a typical wise remark quotWould online change mediaquot he was asked quotNoquot he replied quotonline will change everythingquotAnd so it has The marketing and indeed the agency intakes at the time have grown up online Today that cohort is in and around boardrooms The days of the CEOs who prided themselves on not being able to turn on a computer are goneAs the online natives move up a business39s approach to all aspects of the connected world will evolve It39s easy to mock the disconnected nature of much of what we do but this is all a bit harder than switching on a light habits and practices take time to changeThe second green shoot can be seen in media agencies39 behaviorThe networks and of course they39re not the only ones just the biggest have learned the hard way that trust has a value and that the malpractices that Mandel exposed need to be driven out of the systemBuying media is still a critical part of the agency39s role and will continue to be so but the emergence of planning as a specialist skill as opposed to a catchall generalist phrase is essentialIf agencies are to regain trust in the era of the informed advertiser it39s going to be through planning And as trust has a value agencies need to elevate their planning skills to a point where they can legitimately charge After all if one revenue stream has hit the buffers it needs to be replaced by anotherThen there39s the positive brought about by the quotin plain sightquot nature of fake news and ad fraud When news was news it was not always easy to tell what was and wasn39t trueWhen no one except a few geeks knew about ad fraud it was easy to dismiss it as a nonissue Indeed as recently as five years ago The Cog Blog summarized points that Aegis39 Louisa Wong made during an event presentation arguing that online fraud was no big deal She also said that the digital industry was spreading unnecessary doom and gloom among the advertiser community which really shouldn39t worryToday we are all aware of fake news Those who peddle what is truly fake as opposed to something they may not like or agree with are being called out Sales of quality newspapers are up in the United States And even if the UK has the leasttrusted newspapers in Europe according to regular EBU studies at least the worst of the untruths are starting to be checked and the truth is slowly emergingWe may not all be fully aware of ad fraud39s reach and volume but even nongeeks like me know that it39s a huge problemAdvertisers are increasingly taking into account where their ads appear and are coming to terms with the fact that an impression is not just an impressionFinally we are all starting to understand more about what works and what doesn39t Creative standards may have slipped onesizefitsallmedia solutions are at long last being exposed and advertising may as a result be less effective than it once was But if the best way through a problem starts with recognizing the problem we are it seems on our wayMore engaged advertisers boardrooms recognizing online media agencies refocusing on planning an acceptance that there are bad actors and a realization that what we39ve been doing isn39t workingamp8230In there somewhere lies hopeDon39t stop now Read more from Brian Jacobs in The Cog BlogClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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There is Hope for the Advertising World

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Brian Jacobs

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