Where We've Gone Wrong: An Illustrated History

But that having been said historically we39ve been reasonably liked Ad people tend to be curious interesting and outgoing We may not save the world but at least we add to the gaiety of nationsWhat we produce has been at worst tolerated and at best enjoyed For years I hung onto a survey finding from an advertising association claiming that 51 percent of people preferred TV ads to the programs surrounding them Maybe what we produce is not as universally loved and revered as we might like to think but the best entertains and endures And it sells stuffOver the past 10 years or so however we seem to have gone wrong The advertising we produce as numerous studies testify is not trusted Ad people are vying for bottom place along with lawyers and journalists in the league table of trusted professionsWe39ve gone from being a part of the national watercooler conversation quotDid you see the new NikeGuinnessAudi ad last nightquot to a footnote quotI can39t remember any ads I39ve seenquotPeople still remember Coke39s quotHilltopquot ad That was 1971 And the Hovis quotBoy on the Bikequot ad 1973 Guinness Surfer 1999 and the whole raft of Nike quotJust Do Itquot ads dating back to Walt Stack in 1988 Some even found their way into comedy sketches best to watch the Hovis ad firstOf course there are ads and campaigns from the past decade that will endure And of course I39m to be polite of a certain vintage But those that endure are amp8212 I39m prepared to bet amp8212 rarer than they used to beWhat39s gone wrongSome of this is down to technology We all know the story not as many mass viewing experiences smaller audiences to even the largest TV shows the ability to skip the ads and so onSome aspects are structural Fullservice ad agencies forced a degree of interdepartmental collaboration through proximity No not every media guy walked up the corridor to talk to a creative but it was easier when there was only a corridor between you Today many media people don39t know the creators of the ads they39re placing Many of them don39t even know the adAs Leo Burnett once said quotNo one of us is as good as all of usquot Burnett had never heard of social media where it39s more quotNo one knows as much as mequotSome parts are societal We live in a social media age of bubbles and echo chambers We39ve convinced ourselves that personalization and addressability are the cures to all our ills whereas consumers find an excessive amount of overpersonal contact from advertisers quotcreepyquotYes it39s acknowledged as useful that Google Maps knows where you are Whether that acknowledgment of usefulness extends to someone pestering you to buy a pair of shoes on the basis that you bought a pair 10 minutes ago is debatableIn a nutshell we39ve turned what was a skillful business that mixed art and science into an exercise in massoptimization We39ve confused media targeting with creative relevanceAs a result the media guys remember I am one have been running around convincing advertisers of the benefits of this that or the other acronym and selling data solutions the details of which they don39t really understand amp8212 all to convince some auditor that the CPM has gone downWho cares about the appeal of the ad sorry the content Who cares if we are adding apples and pears when it comes to viewing data Stop getting all technicalThe creative fraternity must shoulder some of the blame Many creative people were slow in coming to grips with these new media forms They didn39t understand them seeing them as little more than the modernday equivalent of a new magazine format or TV slotConsequently they applied the techniques they had learned on old media the early results worked about as well as placing a long copy press ad on a highway billboardClients meanwhile have been asleep at the wheel It is far easier to understand that 100 million impressions is bigger than 10 million than it is to make a judgment on an ad39s creativity and likely effectivenessWhether the 100 million means anything is accurate or even truthful has become almost beside the pointThe media guys amp8212 we amp8212 wanted to be center stage Well we39ve been there for a while now and I think it39s fair to say that having the industry led by the buyers and sellers of media hasn39t been an unqualified successBut there is hope The next Cog Blog will explainDon39t 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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Where We've Gone Wrong: An Illustrated History

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Brian Jacobs

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