Every now and again someone comes up with a deeply provocative idea that challenges the fundamental nature of how things work in today’s world. That is exactly what Eric Clemons has accomplished with his latest post on TechCrunch.
According to Clemons, not only is commercial advertising dying in the context of traditional mass media (newspapers, magazines, TV, etc.) but, advertising will rapidly deteriorate and eventually die in the context of the internet as well (sponsored search, banners, etc).
The Death of Advertising: Offline and Online
Whether or not you agree — Mr. Clemons perspective is well supported by three very simple principles:
- Consumers do not trust advertising. Forrester
says that corporate advertising is the least-trusted source of information on products and services, while recommendations from friends and online reviews from customers are the highest.
- Consumers do not want to view advertising. To most people, mass media advertisements are slightly less annoying than cold calls at dinner time. Whether it’s fast-forwarding through ads with your DVR, or eliminating them altogether by subscribing to satellite radio — the fact is that people are increasingly in control of the media they consume, and they increasingly “turn-off”, or “tune-out” advertisements.
- Consumers do not need advertising. Research clearly suggests that consumers trust the opinions of friends and family more than anything else. In today’s hyper-connected world it’s easier than ever to get opinions from those that you know and trust. As a result, the relative value of advertising is declining, which makes it much harder to sell. Just ask the social networking giants Facebook and Myspace.
In summary, the challenges faced by the advertising industry have nothing to do with the medium, and everything to do with the message. It’s simply not trusted, not wanted, and not needed.
As a result, successful marketers in the future will spend less time and money attempting to connect with prospects via traditional outbound advertising. Instead, they will consistently and repeatedly connect with customers by making their products and messages easy to share and inherently viral.
And, how would you propose, that can be done?
Employ viral and transparent messaging frameworks: create compelling and interesting content, aggressively promote it on your blog, in twitter, in youtube, and everywhere. Make it easy for others to share themselves with friends and family via social networks of their choice.
Develop freemium based products: create innovative products where the variable cost of goods sold (cogs) is near zero. Then employ a freemium dsitribution model whereby you give away 90% of your product for the opportunity to monetize 10%.
Consumers DO need advertising.
They need it so that their employers can continue selling their goods and services and thus continue to employee said consumer.
Advertising is not going away. Partially what it will do is return to earlier less escapable forms: direct mail, outdoor boards, and radio.
I agree with the points you make and this re-inforces the argument that billboards, retail and transit advertising are the most effective mass marketing medium we will have available as time goes on. Try as you might you just can’t switch off a billboard.
Direct mail and targeted email with not go away and will only increase in relevance as TV and radio etc become less relevant.
Dale Shaw
Auckland, New Zealand