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Specifics could get too long winded and since I started this in broad brushstrokes I will finish like that. (Questions can be posted in comments.) The seed of the issue is based on a human quotient that many might not factor into to the issue at all – The capacity of the consumer brain and in the modern day, the naturally dwindling attention span facilitated by instant Internet information overload.
Back in the day, (commensurate old timey music) when exposed to advertising, you expected it and it was delivered. You not only expected it to have a certain look and format, but the brain attached a whole set of conditions recognizing it was advertising and that someone was trying to sell you something. There was almost a mental anticipation. What this means, is that you were conditioned to recognize a marketing message and considering you didn’t see a whole lot of them, Ads could actually create a lasting impact with the consumers that saw them. Particularly when viewing the same ad over and over.
Most people equate that consumer recognition to branding, if exposed to enough Ad messages. Did this work? Absolutely. Has advertising changed since then? Immeasurably!
Today, branding doesn’t function the same in a conventional sense, it actually exists on a very different plane. A present day corporate brand often functions near real-time on a global level whether physical or virtual, or both. This brand also endures a cacophony of competitive messages trying to make impact with its targets in an expanding universe of message content. Is advertising still relevant? Yes, with considerable qualifications and a great deal of media blending. Corporate advertising still pays the bills for the old school media distributors, but less so and rightfully so. TV for example is becoming less influential in the global market these days. It has to compete with a myriad of other clever content messengers. It also has to deal with the “no impression” technology that co-opts its ad investment. Enter the mighty TIVO paradigm shift that changes not only the viewing experience but also provides the easiest way to fast forward past the captive audience part the advertisers pay for. I see a few nods out there now. But that’s just a tip of the iceberg example as consumers become more sophisticated and entertainment content delivery diversifies.
With such an explosion of content types, fragmentation of media venues and a near anti-branding consumer message environment, I’m afraid the Ad industry currently faces a crossroad moment in the way it does business. Unfortunately, if the industry it doesn’t realize this, it could very well be missing the boat every bit as much as the Music industry does, who cant see its “demise forest” for all the trees. Okay I hear you saying, it cant be that bad! Well, as the landscape becomes more unrecognizable everyday and even though our ability to absorb more information is evolving due to the influence of the web, the ability for it to make an impact on us is dwindling. Good old brain function and human nature. We are now inundated with more information today than ever in the history of our race and it’s been such an exponential increase that our brains will take a while to evolve the ability to handle it.
How this applies to advertising is interesting. Sure, you CAN bombard us with a great deal more conventional short form Ad impressions over an even shorter period of time, and, when it comes to the Web, for a lot less money. But as the old saying goes you get what you pay for. Also, the delivery method these days requires just as much creativity as the actual message. Lastly, understanding the target customer is obviously more important than ever before, but how best to reach them is the “It” issue that I believe, will show Ads no longer can stand alone. So unless Ads are partnering with marketing, media, publicity and customer relations, I’m afraid, conventional advertising is just quickly lost in the shuffle.
As most boomer’s can attest, the advances in media and expansion of ad messages all around us has grown exponentially, in just our generation. Even though I am at the young side of boomer, I have lived at the forefront of diverse technology and consumerism ALL my life and I would describe the difference by using the term ‘magnitude of order,’ which for those less scientific in the audience is 10 times the previous standard.
I actually think it’s more than that, but I digress. Now, for the ubiquitous, “When I was a Kid,” and media was the classic three network channels and the radio dial, ad or marketing impressions where counted by the handful. Often, a single corporate entity sponsored a whole prime-time, hour-long show. And, back in the day prime-time wasn’t 24/7 like it is now, You really only had a three short hours before The Tonight Show and that was it.
Okay, I know you’re rolling your eyes wondering what my point is in visiting the past, (some of you may actually be remembering your media youth,) but I do have one. What I am aiming to do is offer a dramatic comparison of what the Ad industry was built on and what it has become and how they might not be precepts that agree with each other in the modern day. Back in the day, there really was such a thing as a captive audience and the popularity of the time slot and creative content drove the ad value. Today, captive audience is a quaint archaic reference to the pre-Internets age of no Tivo, itunes or bittorrent! It even predates the VCR, can you imagine!
Crazy huh! Yet true. The ironic thing is the Ad world still envisions its product carrying the same value now, as it did in the golden age of advertising. Now I can hear your eyes rolling in your head and the pfft spitting unconsciously from your mouth! Yes, they do and the Super bowl serves as a prime bloated modern day example. The biggest truth is that their conventional product in and of itself, currently possesses very little value to make impact with consumers, by way of comparison to the olden days. Think of the CD analogy in the current music marketplace … just because the industry wants you to consume their product in the format they dictate to you, doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy the disc to get the product. Or even that you have to buy the product at all. Isn’t technology grand!
Blasphemy you say. Actually, no. Understanding the basic paradigms of advertising will underscore my point. For example, a key advertising analytic is impressions. Lets see how things have changed since the golden era:
Olden Days impressions: television, radio, newspaper and print periodicals. If you were an adult it was what you saw in the prime time TV slots, the Radio spots to and from work and print in the paper and occasional magazine. If you saw more than a few dozen impressions a day during the golden era, you were a stay at home mom. Dad saw fewer and junior fewer still. This was the branding heyday! If you threw enough money and creative talent at the ad scene, chances were good you could make a name like for yourself like any of the familiar, old school corporate Fortune 100 still around today.
Internet Age Impressions: With digital capability came the opening of Pandora’s entertainment box! Lets take a look at the media sources available today. All the media from the previous era still exists but lets add all the ADDITIONAL impressions from surfing online and I am being conservative by saying depending on where you go or what you do for a living, you can see a full “olden days” impression quota before you get to work in the morning. If you work in any conventional cubical farm at all, you have constant Internet access during the day and lets not kid ourselves, you use it! If that’s the case, total daily impressions can be way more than that mythical ‘magnitude of order’ of the total impressions that consumers were exposed to in the olden days. I, as you know, work in media research and my impression exposure in a standard day is easily 3 to 5 HUNDRED impressions from the internet alone. This doesn’t include my drive time radio (which I’m convinced is the last remaining effective olden day ad venue,) and I don’t even watch conventional television! So, when you look at it that way, it adds up doesn’t it!
But wait! There’s more! Lets not forget the PR factor, which adds a whole new dimension in the modern age! Back in the golden age it was easy for the consumer to discern between ads and PR. The media itself helped keep the defining line clear. Back then PR didn’t step on the toes of its advertising brethren and consumer confusion wasn’t nearly the issue it would become. In the Internet age PR competes more directly for the dwindling consumer attention span and it muddies the marketing water even more by the very nature of its evolution into a chameleon that has no problem delivering brilliantly executed mixed messages in formats that were once the hallowed ground of advertising only. In other words, PR is not just for magazines anymore and everything is fair game! Welcome to the viral buzz world and even more competition for your dwindling impression time. (used car salesman grin.)
What’s it all mean?
It means the ad industry will have to adjust a changing consumer landscape, just like the music and entertainment industry does. Stay tuned next week for part two.
In this day and age of marketing savvy and unbridled media opportunity, you would think understanding of crisis PR management and the ability to avoid the customer media fiasco would prevent the following, but alas.
Creative Labs is a computer hardware manufacturer that has built a modern day monopoly brand around their peripheral computer sound cards and consumer digital music equipment. Though the company has diversified the company brand in recent years, its core customer base remains the geek and gamer enthusiasts. These customers could be rightfully called fanboys and contribute mightily to the company’s market monopoly.
That’s why it’s even more baffling why the company would snub its core audience. Here’s the lowdown:
Creative, like many hardware makers had certain difficulties dealing with the New Microsoft Operating Beast, Vista. Driver development for current past and new products to work on the new platform became a bit of a headache. So you would think they would buckle down and take care of business? No, certainly not! We are mighty Creative and can do as we please. And that’s exactly what they did. Here’s where it gets good.
While Creative shipped all their new products over a period of months with a shiny new “Vista Certified” sticker on all its packaging, the truth is the firmware drivers the company developed wouldn’t work on the new bloated platform. So like many community driven hardware, in stepped a very talented fanboy and respected community member Daniel_K. Not only did he figure out HOW to make drivers and firmware that allowed Creative devices to work with Vista, he went ahead and DEVELOPED THEM! (This is where Creative coders hang their head in shame) So, suffice it to say a giant hurray went up all over Creativeland and once again soundcards worked with the systems to which they were attached. But alas again!
No, unfortunately they didn’t live happily ever after. As it turned out this one man driver genus continued to provide to the community an ever expanding catalog of firmware and to cover his time and energy he asked for donations from those who felt compelled to do so. Well, here is where it gets ugly very quickly. Since the firmware the company bases it hardware on is made by other than themselves, Creative decided what Danile_K was doing violated legal arrangements. So, instead of contacting this hardworking enthusiast to discuss ways to keep the love flowing, they just decided to send out the Cease and Desist order and shut down the little guy that was SAVING THEIR LAZY CORPORATE AZZ! Instead of offering this guy a position on their team for 6 figures along with some shiny new sleek expensive auto that includes stock options in the glove box … They just shut him down and made him go the pirate route by posting his drivers to bittorrent. As you would imagine the outcry is immense. The Creative forum had to be edited by the company and monster tech enthusiast site Digg.com posted 2 massive stories, on successive days, that outlined the Creative community implosion.
Is it just me or does Corporate stupidity continue to evolve, when by every right it should have learned? It appears so. Creative will survive their current debacle, but they wont get out unscathed and as in my case and a lot of others … they lost a long time customer, to never return. Hello competition!
