Food for thought: The spy who sold out
Forgiving a pretty face
Facebook to agencies: how will people share your story?
Is “The Pitch” an accurate reflection of our industry?
A recent article on Tech Crunch boldly proclaims: “Advertising will fail.” Written by Eric Clemons, Professor of Operations and Information Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the main argument hinges on the idea that the Internet’s participatory nature is fundamentally undermining what we know as advertising.
I agree that the Internet is participatory, however Clemons’s base premise is flawed. Here it is:
“Advertising is using sponsored commercial messages to build a brand and paying to locate these messages where they will be observed by potential customers performing other activities; these messages describe a product or service, its price or fundamental attributes, where it can be found, its explicit advantages, or the implicit benefits from its use.”
Clearly, Prof. Clemons has not read “The digital why,” where I argued that in the digital space, you need to create value for the consumer to interact with your brand.
Advertising is not dead. It’s not dying. It’s in a state of evolution. Advertising will endure. Here’s why:
1) Advertising is full of smart people.
Adverting is not an industry for the dim-witted. Every day, regardless of your specific role in this business, you are faced with a unique set of problems and challenges. Every day you need to come up with strategic and creative solutions to these issues. Advertising counts among its numbers some of the world’s greatest linguists, artists, strategists, and technologists. All of them explore and learn about the channels available to them, and use them in new and exciting ways. One of these smart people is Dondy Razon. Dondy is ACD at Nurun, here in Toronto. One of the things he is doing is changing the focus of the advertising they do for their customers:
“What if we made ideas that make life easier, that teach and inspire, that give people control of what they experience?”
We call it digital platforms, he calls it digital utility. Which brings me to my second point …
2) Advertising is not just TV anymore.
Good advertisers and agencies know that the Internet is participatory. Armed with that knowledge, they come up with solutions that fit.
Social media is being used by brands to have meaningful conversations with their customers. In that venue they can get instant feedback, and promote their products and services in increasingly human and genuine ways.
Other advertisers create branded content, like the Old Spice guy. Smart marketers are starting to realize that on the net, advertising doesn’t subsidize entertainment – it is the entertainment.
Digital utilities/platforms support a product, service or brand in a way that is useful to the consumer. Nike+, for example, is a run-tracking program that lives online. With a pair of Nike shoes and a $30 Apple sensor you can track almost all relevant information about your runs, and share it with other runners in the community. It is an incredibly robust tool that has one final objective: to sell more shoes.
3) Channels don’t die, they evolve.
When radio came out, print was supposed to die. When TV came out, radio was supposed to die. When the inter-webs were born, TV was supposed to die. The reality is with every new medium, or adjustment to a medium, new tools become available to advertisers. Advertising, being full of smart people, will find new and exciting ways to use all of these channels to solve the business problems of the brands they represent. And it will work.
I’ve seen quite a few articles and videos talking about the end of advertising. Most of them are based on false premises. Here’s another one: “The Information Management program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania teaches outdated concepts.” Therefore, Prof. Clemons is grossly misinformed.
Tweets that mention Advertising is undead « Big Orange Slide -- Topsy.com
August 6, 2010 @ 9:42 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Marcin Zerek, Damian Simev and Grip Limited, miranda. miranda said: Incase you were wondering.. #Advertising is undead http://bit.ly/bvYQYE & full of smart people :) [...]
Mayan White
August 6, 2010 @ 1:28 pm
This is literally the most useful blog on new media adn marketing I’ve ever seen. Clean, simple, informative. You’ve got a new fan!
Ean
August 6, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
“Smart marketers are starting to realize that on the net, advertising doesn’t subsidize entertainment – it is the entertainment.”
This ^
Nick F
August 6, 2010 @ 1:52 pm
I completely agree with what was said here. If there’s anything that’s really dead about advertising; it would be its definition. Advertising is no longer solely “sponsored commercial messages” as defined by Mr. Clemons. It is no longer a practice, but rather an industry description. The purpose of advertising is to meaningfully connect brands with people in ways that aren’t scrupulous or misleading.
Another industry subject to similar misconceptions is that of sales. Do all “sales people” simply sit at a desk Glengary-Glenross style; or is there much more to the role? The job title of “sales” is more frequently associated by consumers to a paradigm of the car salesmen of the mid-to-late 20th century: pushy, slicked hair, awkwardly coloured suits and a sly handshake to match their smile.
Does that mean that everyone associates these stereotypes towards advertising and selling? No, however there’s a much smaller sub-group of people that not only stereotype professions, but their work as well. The notion that all advertising will fail on the internet is preposterous; unless you’re still using a definition from the 1930s. The only thing more archaic than this definition is the notion that advertising online hasn’t evolved past banner ads or Google Adwords and that people are being taken advantage of. The truth is that advertising online has evolved far beyond this point. This is why the proposed three reasons why it will fail are incorrect:
1. Consumers do not trust advertising: do people trust the spam e-mails for weight loss pills in their mailbox? No. Do people trust clothing maintenance and cleaning tips from a CPG detergent brand? More likely.
2. Consumers do not want to view advertising: classical research would suggest that consumers embrace advertising because it is a source of information. People are genuinely interested to find out that a company they like has released a new edition or product or at a new price. Does all online advertising meet this criterion? No. Is all online advertising successful (on an ROI basis)? No. There’s a relationship between the two.
3. Consumers do not need advertising: in the classical sense I completely agree. People don’t need banner ads. The successful advertising agencies in the 21st century find seamless ways to digitally integrate brands into consumers’ environment in a positive way. People don’t even classify it as advertising anymore.
As mentioned in the last posing wrt. McLuhan; the medium is the message. The medium is simply whatever’s relevant to the target group, be it the Sunday Times, the radio, Facebook or World of Warcraft. In other words, there’s no “dead” mediums; only relevant and non-relevant ones which are completely subjective. Advertising is alive and well, albeit the messages may change place and form. And as always, successful advertising will always seem honest and helpful, however there is always a bunch of bad apples that by no means taint the rest of the industry.
Liam Mooney
August 6, 2010 @ 2:09 pm
Great article.
Even consider the medium of print newspapers. At the dawn of the digital age everyone and their uncle proclaimed “The end of the newspaper is nigh!”
While it’s true that people have changed the way the consume some of this traditional content (it is estimated that as much as 31% of Canadians now read the newspaper online) it has not led to the death of the newspaper at all.
In fact the readership figures between the years 2008-2009 in all of Canada’s three major papers (the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and the National Post) remained stable in all cases with either a a small decline or small increase.
So again, it is clear that channels do not evaporate over night, as you suggest they evolve and change and newspapers have as well.
If people are still reading them (which evidently they are) then they still make sense for advertisers.
Besides, is there anything better than picking up a newspaper on Sunday morning at the cottage and playing the crossword?
Simon
August 6, 2010 @ 2:14 pm
Well put.
“Smart marketers are starting to realize that on the net, advertising doesn’t subsidize entertainment – it is the entertainment.”
This ^ (as Ean already said) is exactly it.
+ “Advertising is not dead. It’s not dying. It’s in a state of evolution” … constant evolution.
Clemons is old enough and wise enough to not speak in absolutes.
p.s. I suggest he spend more time on http://www.theFWA.com
p.p.s. I can somewhat see what he is trying to say but unfortunately his view on digital > traditional advertising didn’t transpose very well.
p.p.p.s. Eric Clemons reminds me of Orville Redenbacher :)
http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/images/clemons_eric_rdax_192×226.jpg
Jacoub Bondre
August 6, 2010 @ 4:13 pm
@ Liam There is nothing better.
Dondy Razon
August 7, 2010 @ 6:01 am
Great article Jacob!
I agree with your points and I too believe that Advertising will not fail but maybe agencies that don’t see the light of digital utility will!
Even though most big agencies have digital capabilities; that’s where they fail! They just see it as a capability or an add-on to their traditional thinking…
By the way… Thanks for the mention :)
One correction though. Digital Utility is not just my idea, its Nurun’s platform. I don’t deserve all the credit but I’ll take some for spreading the word and making people think as so should you!
Liam Mooney
August 7, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
@ Jacoub & Dondy,
This whole discussion reminds me of the ad that the FITC commissioned Saatchi to make in order to promote their upcoming conference(s).
If you haven’t seen it (I am certain you have), the video spot looks at what happens if ad agencies do not evolve to the digital age.
The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERGrSQoY5fs
It’s pretty hilarious, and I don’t buy all the arguments, but I think it makes a fairly compelling argument in favour of agencies making a whole hearted effort to have an integrated communications approach, rather than just “as a capability or an add-on to their traditional thinking…” as Dondy so succinctly put it.
My only critique of the video, if I had one, is that I think content is still king. The art of storytelling is critical and I think that needs to be an important part of an integrated communications approach. Dondy, I feel that this is something you’d agree with.
Anyway I feel like a loser for blogging responding at 2pm on a Saturday, so I am going to get back to the Blue Jays game here. JP Arencibia hit a home run on his first pitch in his first big league game a few minutes ago. Excuse me while I go have an orgasm.
Liam Mooney
August 7, 2010 @ 2:01 pm
@ Jacoub I love getting newspaper ink in my hands. There is something really nostalgic about it. Perhaps that adds to the value of the medium? It must.
Jim Monteath
August 8, 2010 @ 1:48 pm
@ Jacoub – It may come as a surprise to you that I agree with almost everything you wrote above.
Clemons’ biggest mistake is conflating the activity of publishing ads on a website with the goal of persuading consumers about brand choices. He extrapolates diminishing on-line ad revenues into the death of the Advertising industry. His Bizzaro World McCluhanism would be “the medium is the messenger”. As you and others pointed out, that’s a crock.
In doing this, Clemons buries his pertinent points about web content/service monetisation models and how websites can no longer subsist on ad placement revenues alone. He should have stuck to that topic.
Dondy Razon
August 9, 2010 @ 2:55 pm
@Liam I did see that video.
But I don’t fully agree with you about content being king! I think it has a lot to do with the contents of the content and the purpose of the content. One could argue that most of advertising we see online is content… But are they all useful and important or are they just a waste of time? (Contest and Promotional ads)
There will always be room for good advertising. And the art of story telling use to be the master key into creating those. But I think the future of advertising shouldn’t just rely on it.
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