Advertising: R.I.P.
Okay, maybe advertising isn’t dead yet, but I did see a couple of articles in the past couple of days that suggest there is a producer-driven trend towards less advertising, at least of the chain-you-to-your-couch, pry-your-eyes-open Clockwork-Orange-style variety.
One article is from the Financial Times, so you can’t read it unless you’re a subscriber. (This is stupid, by the way, because I wouldn’t have hesitated to pay a small pay-per-download charge after it was recommended to me by friends. Instead… well, let’s just say that I picked up the print edition.) Just in case you are, here is the link, with an excerpt for those who aren’t:
“Advertisers are starting to find television a turn-off”
Meanwhile, the search for alternatives to television is picking up. ZenithOpti-media, an advertising buyer that forms part of Publicis, said this month that television’s share of the global ad market had probably peaked last year. As recently as April, it had predicted television would gain market share this year and next, before heading lower.
The other is from Fortune, which is similarly restricted to subscribers. (The fact that these publications try to force you to subscribe to the print edition in order to access online content, instead of just charging a per-article fee, is a perfect example of how their bricks-and-mortar mindset is preventing them from taking full advantage of the internet… and opening the door for someone more flexible to eat their lunch.) At least this one has a longish intro that is available for free: “Innovation: the Future of Advertising”. The article looks intriguing, so I’ll have to find a way to get my hands on it. I can’t even pick it up at the newsstand — not yet, at least — since I’m in Europe.
Another article in Monday’s FT ties in nicely with my rant about cinema advertising:
“Flash mobbing gives up its wild past”
It turns out that the [supposedly spontaneous “flash mobbing”] concerts are being staged by Ford Motor with Sony Pictures Digital to promote the launch of the new Ford Fusion car, which Ford wants to portray as cool.
Trust big business to turn flash mobbing to its advantage.. But what puzzles me is where are the howls of outrage? You would have thought that people in their 20s and 30s would have been sickened by the sight of a company co-opting their little gesture of anarchy into the service of a branding strategy. But the artists themselves — The Roots, Fat Joe, The Wallflowers — are clearly happy enough to perform for Our Ford and the fans seem thrilled at the idea of attending a musical sales pitch if it means they get free tickets.
I’m starting to think that its time to start an activist movement aiming to increase awareness of the hidden costs (financial, aesthetic, moral, etc.) of marketing run amok. The second FT article goes on to mention Naomi Klein’s anti-brand screed, No Logo. But Miss Klein is a knee-jerk anti-capitalist in the brick-throwing Seattle-WTO-protest mold. So while I sympathesize with some of her views, I can’t take her proposed alternatives very seriously; where they’re not hopelessly vague they’re hopeless utopian. What we need is an honest-to-goodness red-meat-eating capitalist take on the need for restraint in marketing, for the sake of both producers and consumers.
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Advertisers are “shying” away from TV because people are spending less time in front of the tube than they are cruising the web, not because consumers have suddenly wised up to advertisement. But by the way, numbers may be dropping a bit, but they aren’t moving that fast, at least by ZDNet’s recent figuring. 3.8% of all advertising money to go into Internet ads in 2005 by ZDNet’s ZDNet — Television’s share of global advertising spending is expected to slip by 2007 as more ad dollars are diverted to the Internet. Television’s share is expected to peak in 2006 at 37.9% of global ad spending, before slipping to 37.8% by 2007, according to ZenithOptimedia. Newspapers are expected to end 2005 with a 29.8% global ad […]
Comment by Cornelia — 7/27/2005 @ 11:02 pm
You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down
Comment by cep program — 5/14/2008 @ 8:50 pm
thank you nice sharing
Comment by cep program — 5/14/2008 @ 8:52 pm