The Future of Advertising Is Beginning To Fade Into The Past.
Sad but true, our moment in the sun has begun the slow fade to black. In 2006 when P&Gs CEO, A.G. Lafley stated before the 4A's that the Marketing Business Model was "broken." There was a flurry of editorial interest in what comes next.
New age agencies like Anomaly and Mother got started. We initiated the Institute for Advanced Practices in Advertising. The technology companies like Google, Cisco and Microsoft got into the game with initiatives and aquisitions. Everybody had a new business process to brand or define. But when the dust settled the only thing that was new was the pile of press releases on the floor. Nothing substantial had evolved. Advertising was the same as it ever was. Only with less intellectual capital because the plus 30 guys have been dropped because of the strange belief that new blood yields new ideas.
So now the clients, who have been more than patient with our industry are starting to look elsewhere. Advertising had its opportunity to drag itself into C21 and blew it. But maybe not. What do you think can be done to make advertising more engaging to the audience and more meaningful to those who have a need to know what product or service can best fill their unmet wants needs and desires.
New age agencies like Anomaly and Mother got started. We initiated the Institute for Advanced Practices in Advertising. The technology companies like Google, Cisco and Microsoft got into the game with initiatives and aquisitions. Everybody had a new business process to brand or define. But when the dust settled the only thing that was new was the pile of press releases on the floor. Nothing substantial had evolved. Advertising was the same as it ever was. Only with less intellectual capital because the plus 30 guys have been dropped because of the strange belief that new blood yields new ideas.
So now the clients, who have been more than patient with our industry are starting to look elsewhere. Advertising had its opportunity to drag itself into C21 and blew it. But maybe not. What do you think can be done to make advertising more engaging to the audience and more meaningful to those who have a need to know what product or service can best fill their unmet wants needs and desires.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by El B on -
Change the 3 A’s keep the 4th:
Attraction - There is no affection without attraction. Don’t look available, look attractive.
Affection - We all need love and care, now more than ever. Show me some love and I might return. Affection solves the accessibility problem.
Attention – Short attention span. Yet there is always something that catches our attention. Once you get attention, you get awareness.
Affordability – Money does matter.
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Permalink Reply by Harry Webber on
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Very zen-like. It took me a few minutes to gage whether you were serious or pulling my leg.
Then I discovered a certain worldly outlook that indicated the wisdom of your post.
For a brand to show affection it must obviously venture beyond the financial attraction of the audience. I believe that Apple is attracted to more than my ability to buy. Not so much with Dell, or HP. That affection on Apple's part certainly makes me more accessible to their marketing messages.
I believe that everybody has A.D.D. However attention and retention are two different animals. As are awareness and preference. This goes in the right direction but an important element is still missing. Persuasion.
Money does matter. But not as much as value perception. Is there more to tell? Think about it.
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Permalink Reply by El B on
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I agree that attention and retention are different. Yet, before retention comes attention. A.D.D is in its advanced stages, and there is no cure for it, just medicine -- unless we choose to pay attention. Whether you catch their attention or they choose to pay attention (attraction), it’s just a beginning of a possible relationship, that, of course, you both are looking for one. Then you start dating: you give the attention (=affection) they long for, you get the retention you need. Retention is like a long-term relationship. You constantly have to remind them how much you love them, ask them what’s wrong, and act like you care. Best case scenario: they need you as much as you need them. Even better case scenario: they need you more than you need them. The same works for awareness and preference. I have to be aware in order to define my preferences.
Persuasion can be tricky. In the world where everyone is a unique “star” and “sky is the limit”, obvious persuasion doesn’t always sit well with “I’m in control of my destiny”. Is it the art of persuasion or the ability to make people believe by guiding them in the right direction and helping them make the “right” decision over and over again? It’s like waking up one day believing and urgently desiring to be a star after watching AI for years.
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The dating metaphor is extremely appropriate for the next step in advertising. Current advertising is like the live-in boy friend who settled in to the routine of self-satisfaction and left her to fetch his beer and warm his bed. But the audience, like the bored girl friend has decided that she's done with it. Dude has got to go.
Of course he is still in denial, even as his clothes are being tossed into the hall. "But please, baby, please, baby, baby please, does not cut it with the ex-squeeze. She's not hearing it. Time for a change. And not necessarily a new guy. The audience has options. She can opt for freedom from some guy crowding her space. She can opt for more than one new guy ringing her bell. She can even elect to walk on the wild side and visit the girl's bar down the street from her loft.
Your association with retention and acting like you care is a great place to start. Why should she retain something that has lost its meaning? Why should she maintain something that isn't working to make her feel special? After all, if the preferred balance of power is them needing you more than you needing them, then they have to work for your attention/affection 24/7/365. This means that the idea of advertising being passive, is passe. This means the idea of advertising being generic
as opposed highly targeted is way off target.
If you have to be aware to define your preferences, then it follows that your awareness has to include a significant amount of trust. You don't tell someone you don't trust that you like to have you earlobe licked and blown on. This means that advertising has to become episodic. It has to unfold at your will, in a way that engages the parts you wish to be engaged, yet knows enough to never become more than you are ready to receive. Advertising the seducer. Controling your perception of being in control.
Which is in perfect sync with the ability to make people believe by guiding them in the right direction for them. Not leading them in the right direction for your own commercial objectives. In the world of the street grifters this is known as the long con.
But then what? If you believe and urgently desire to be a star, then the job of your
chosen dishwashing liquid is to provide you with a way to shine your vocals as well as your wine goblets. What do you think?
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Permalink Reply by El B on
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As you know when a woman’s fed up there is nothing you can do about it. No one walks away or gets thrown out just because. We all have our reason and motives. We start looking for something new when the old isn’t doing it for us anymore. I think advertising isn’t the live-in boyfriend anymore. Advertising is the ex-boyfriend who is desperately trying to get his girl back. Look at Ruby Tuesday’s latest stunt. You like demolition, I give you demolition. You want me to be new and improved; I will be new and improved. Just don’t go to Friday’s. And yes, we have options, maybe too many options, which makes our decision process so much more complicated. Overwhelmed by the variety of options we seem to forget that not everything that shines is gold. And before you know you find yourself longing for the former live-in boyfriend wondering what went wrong. Because at some point that same lazy beer drinking monster was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Advertising is learning its lesson. Getting comfortable isn’t an option anymore. Begging for attention makes you look desperate. Trying to look cool makes you look silly. Advertising as a seducer might be the way to go. Old but improved way: Advertising as Don Juan de Marco of the new millennium. Same concept, different approach: “It’s not me, it’s you. You want it. Don’t tell me what you desire because I already know.” And just in case you (as Don Juan) don’t know, don’t worry just stay cool. I didn’t know I needed an I-pod either -- thanks to Don Ipod de Apple. And guess what, after my old I-pod died of unidentified causes (one day it fell asleep and never woke up) I ran to the nearest store to get a new one. Because I believe that I just can’t live without one. Even though it does freeze now and then, I still love it. So what, nobody is perfect.
But back to the reality and so to the dishwashing liquid. Describing the benefits of a dishwashing liquid isn’t enough anymore. I know what a decent dishwashing liquid should do. What else can you tell me? Look at the new back-to-school ad from Target. Before you know Target will be throwing a back-to-school party in the furniture department featuring Enur. Come and dance your behind off. And while your kid is partying like a rock star at the local Target, you can buy the furniture for your little miss sunshine or your little soulja boy. My question is who is seducing whom now?
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I beg to differ. If advertising were desperate to get his girl back, this conversation would be happening at a much higher level. The truth is that advertising is down at the bar bragging about how he's rocking his woman's world even while she is busy packing and repacking his bags in her mind and debating whether to to pack them or jack them out of the window when she sees him coming, now that the locks are changed.
Advertising has no idea that it is in fact now the ex-boyfriend. In fact, as long as he's at the bar, he's got a home. The minute he gets home he's got a problem. Advertising is in a state of denial.
And as you stated so eloquently, there is nothing advertising can do about it. His girl is running the taste test on every option that tickles her fancy.
Celibacy is not on her dance card. But old memories do die hard. And now Advertising has been demoted to the pat on the back variety of "Buddyfriend." No place to be somebody special. Advertising needs help.
Enter the seducer. Not the Don Juan de Marco type. Not nearly sophisticated enough. But the Don Porfiro Rubirosa variety. Don Porfirio: "You have everything money and power can buy. You are one of the richest women in the world. What is it that makes your eyes so sad while the rest of you is laughing? Do you even know why your soul is in dispair even while your heart takes flight? Don Porfirio can only venture to guess. Could it be...? Of course it is. Even great beauty cannot hide the pain that never fades. Perhaps this one ancient song, passed down from those who know of secrets long forgotten. Perhaps this song is a beginning for you. Take my iPod. I will find another one day."
The answer is clear. The subject is seducing herself. The new advertising (Don Porfirio) is showing her the way. And in the process making himself
invaluable, as the one who understands that the pain (desire) that never fades, can only be touched by the one who sacrifices themselves (their iPod) for the greater good. Can the old advertising learn from the great Don Porfirio? Or has history moved on?
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Permalink Reply by El B on
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I agree that advertising may appear as Don Porfirio at times. Don Porfirio as well as Don Juan (the legend) share two thing in common – women and the tragic end. While Don Porfirio is nothing but a playboy focused on ROI, Don Juan seduces women for his personal pleasure. One dies crashing his Ferrari, the other one extends his arm to the statue that drags him to hell. In our case where the subject is seducing herself, both Dons will eventually get dismissed: Don Porfirio for wanting to use it and Don Juan for wanting to abuse it.
On the other hand you have your modern day Don Juan DeMarco who undergoes psychiatric treatment to cure him of his apparent delusion to be the world’s greatest lover (bragging about how he's rocking his woman's world). “You want Don Juan de Marco, the world's greatest lover, to talk to you?” It is obvious that this man got issues but somehow he manages to inspire the psychiatric staff by his delusion. How so? He believes and makes believe by seeing what is visible to the eye and beyond. And this is exactly what advertising doesn’t do anymore. So if the advertising is in a state of denial, a treatment might be a solution. After all advertising is made by people who think they know for people they think don’t know, and you can’t tell me that we are the only ones who know what’s going on.
But the good news is people need advertising. Who is going to help me pick mascara? There are so many and I can’t buy them all. Is it going to be Don Porfirio, Don Juan (the legend) or Don Juan De Marco?
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As you say, Don Juan is not real. He is but a legend. Don Porfirio was real, and ultimately legendary. Albeit for all the wrong things. As advertising today is focused on all the wrong things. As for our subject, the beauty of her self-seduction is that she can elect to dismiss both Dons. They serve at the will of the seductress.
As for Johnny Depp, he is protected by his insanity. He is emboldened by his psychosis. His delusion feeds our illusion. So perhaps Johnny Depp rather than Don Porfiro or Don Juan is a more fitting surrogate for the next generation of advertising. I would submit that Mr. Depp would trump either of the Dons in desirability of conversation. For he must truly believe to make believe himself to be Don Juan or Capt. Jack.
But the genius of your analogy is that these are the qualities that are long missing from advertising. it no longer cares enough to believe, or make believe. Not in its audience and her unmet wants, needs and desires. Or in itself enough to get it up to the task of satisfying any or all of those issues. And if what you say is true (and I believe that it is) that "advertising is made by people who think they know for people they think don’t know," then you have made an astute prognosis of a terminal condition. Arrogance in the face of skepticism.
The global economy needs advertising. People, not so much. More and more people are beginning to see advertising as being for those who don't know any better.
As for your Mascara. Should you have to pick one of the Dons, I would suggest it be the one with the most experience at kissing away the most tears. And that could only be the one who was responsible for causing the most of them to flow in his limited time upon the stage of life, not fiction. The Ruby of Great Prize.
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It beats working for a living.
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Permalink Reply by Lane Casteix on -
This is good! Very insightful! Keep it up! But there are moments I almost feel like I am reading a romance novel.
Lane
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Lane,
Whatever it takes. No sacrifice is too great to get to the answer. Metaphor as a clarifier is
a challenge when engaging with a cartoon, however. Even though the cartoon in question has a great set of brains. I breathlessly await the next installment.
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Permalink Reply by Lane Casteix on
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Me too!
Lane
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