How bad advertising is finally killing the ad industry as we know it, and what we can do about it.
The entire business model of the internet depends on advertising, yet the entire business model of the internet is killing advertising as we know it. That’s weird, isn’t it? All we keep hearing about is how clickbait is chasing eyeballs for advertising dollars, news sites are pushing out sensationalist and fake news for the same reason, social media sites are harvesting an obscene amount of our personal data to better target their advertising (and charge more for it), and old media is dying across the world because it can no longer attract advertising.
Is anyone else surprised at the extent to which liddle ol’ advertising is the engine that powers the life and death of so many companies? That the attraction of advertising dollars is the only reason for the existence of many of the sites that monopolise our lives? How did that happen? I get that radio and TV stations needed/need ads to pay for their existence, as did/do newspapers and magazines, but unless I missed something big, the vast majority of the world didn’t always move to the beat of advertising’s drum.
The odd thing is that none of this has funneled more money into the conventional advertising industry. On the contrary, agencies are dying on their arses as they try to convince companies that they need ‘proper’ ads instead of the computer generated poo that we get served up on the web each day. In addition many have been complicit in the dark confusion of online advertising because it’s the only way they can get a share of where the ad dollars are going. (The fact that 99% of all new ad money goes to GoogleBook must be utterly galling.)
So the advertising ‘experts’ have been overtaken by the advertising newbies in less than a decade, and all to the utter detriment of what the ad industry used to hold dear: creativity, intelligence, craft, memorability, disruption and originality (of course I’m not saying that all ads reflected those values but it tended to be the intent). Does that mean none of those things mattered? Clearly the public aren’t up in arms about the change; we seem only to be bothered about the weird messages that follow you around and base their content on your conversations, but the ads being boring and ugly appears to be fine.
This is because we’ve become used to ads being ignorable wallpaper, so when more wallpaper arrived no one really noticed the difference. ‘Bad’ advertising is now killing the entire industry in a way that none of us predicted. We produced many things of a standard that was apparently easy to match, large companies matched it cheaper, quicker and with more accurate aim, and we had no reply.
So here we are.
Now, are going to die or fight?
(I think I heard you all shout ‘fight!’ as you rose to your feet.)
Then what does the fight look like?
It looks like this:
It looks like brilliant, beautiful ads that make people think and laugh and gasp.
It looks like ideas and executions that make a positive difference in people’s lives.
And most of all it looks like messages that Google and Facebook can’t replicate with an algorithm.
Every time we compromise we drive another nail into our coffin.
Every time we settle we push more companies into the arms of GoogleBook.
Every time we make our jobs look like anyone can do them we devalue what we do.
I know it’s not easy, but it’s really all we’ve got left.
The clock is ticking and the brief on your desk is the next chance to slow it down.
‘So the advertising ‘experts’ have been overtaken by the advertising newbies in less than a decade, and all to the utter detriment of what the ad industry used to hold dear: creativity, intelligence, craft, memorability, disruption and originality (of course I’m not saying that all ads reflected those values but it tended to be the intent)’
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I’m a bit confused about this bit Ben, are you placing the blame on new digital agencies, or on younger folk in the industry in general?
Apologies, Putney.
The advertising newbies in this instance are Googlebook et al.
Is that clearer?
Much clearer Ben, cheers.
I agree with my cheerier namesake, it’s a fad.
Personally I wouldn’t worry about this. The constant rise of ad-blockers and the fraud & corruption will make short work with this digi-craze, one way or another. Then we can all get back to writing long copy trade ads and going on shoots on Barbados.
What a delightful thought.
A small part of me thinks you’re right.
I don’t think enough consumers or clients nowadays value the effort that goes into the Levi’s or Honda ads. It may change, but not for a good while.
Ben, interesting thoughts as always. I’d agree with Putney in the main, there is a distinct whiff of a downturn in public opinion on “big tech.” It now seems that people are at least discussing the downsides of it, and that is seeping into client conversations as well.
But to the wider point in your post – I wonder if the creative industry has been swallowed up by the rush to appear “current” in the same way that journalism has? Agencies decided to jump on the kool bandwagon rather than appear out of touch. Perhaps entirely by accident that means creative agencies have focused all their energy at the bottom of the sales funnel, which isn’t where they work their particular brand of magic.
I suppose then it comes down to re-positioning things a bit. Many businesses positioned themselves quite hard against traditional advertising over the last decade or so. But as brands pull digital spend and question where their money is going, perhaps the tide will come back to ad agencies. And then the question is, how hard should agencies position themselves against the algorithm based, programmatic future of digital advertising? Or is a happy marriage possible, once both parties accept that they bring different skills to the table?
I think panic set in and people think they need to head where the money currently is and looks like it will continue to be. It’ll take a backlash or a an outlier to change things. Both are very possible.
In Dave Dye’s Peter Souter podcast Peter mentions the effect Bernbach had on a frankly dreadful, moribund industry. Is a recurrence of that impossible? Of course not.
The question is, who will be the Bill?
I feel another post coming on…
What does the rest of you think?
I’ve come to terms with it. The good times are not coming back.
Advertising as it used to be has had its day. For one thing, shared cultural moments upon which it used to depend are a thing of the past. Media is much too fragmented. Distractions are too numerous.
In any case, I doubt the talent is there anymore. There isn’t enough good work to pull them in.
I find it funny that in the past advertising was obsessed with wrapping up, what was pretty simple, in pseudoscience and so called proprietary thinking. Nowadays it seems to me that the big thing is to shout about the ineffable humanity of creativity, that which can’t be algorithmed or replicated. It’s a total 180. Can’t compete on science with the brainiacs at Google, have to go at them on the ideas man! Which is cool I guess. There is hope though. Googlebook might be the biggest most powerful force in advertising right now but individually they are about as competent as a wet behind the ears intern who’s read one award annual from 1978.
You are 100% correct (see my new post).
oh yeah! nice one
FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT….FLIGHT.
I hope the fight stays, but the flight is tempting. Better money. Free canteens. Respect. Tech has it all. We need to take it back.
And kick it in its boring tech nuts.
Interesting law will come into effect on May 2018 in the European Union . The General Data Protection Regulation . Broadly speaking if you’re an EU citizen you will have the legal right to access, correct, transfer or delete any personal information collected on you online – including by organisations outside the EU (Googlebook). This information could be your name, address, email, bank details, social posts, medical data and your computer IP (and presumably, more importantly, your mobile device).
So from May next year and for 10 months until Brexit to see exactly what is collected, where and even delete it if you want.
Yesterday, I found myself in a meeting with a ‘social expert’ who was discussing the journey we need to take the consumer on, courtesy of a single Fuckbook post.
I came very close to launching myself across the desk and pummeling his fucking smug millennial face with his Shoreditch sticker covered macbook pro.
I’m still hoping to wake up and find Bobby Ewing in the shower.