I was having coffee with a retired advertising veteran who used to run a prominent 4As agency. He mentioned more than once in an hour coffee chat that everything is going digital, and there is no room for traditional agency anymore. He believes that in the not-distant future, the programmatic buying will not only take care of the media placement but will generate the most viable creative execution based on intelligent machine learning that will hit the soft button of the audience to trigger expected behavior.
Whether advertising is an obsolete industry is not a question raised in the digital era. The book, The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR published by Al Ries and Laura Ries twenty years ago, has certified the death of advertising if it is not going to change its role in the communication ecosystem. According to the authors,
Nothing is as useless as yesterday’s advertisement. It might wind up on the wall of an ad agency or in a book of award-winning ads. Bust as far as the average consumer is concerned, an ad is a butterfly. It lives for brief moments, and then it dies. Not so with publicity. A good story will live forever. The fundamental PR strategy is to use a story in one publication and then move it up the ladder to another publication. Or from one medium (print) to another medium (radio or TV).
Many advertising practitioners are the disciples of Al Ries and regard his book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind as the bible that guides the creation of ads. Yet, they may not be too thrilled when Al Ries predicted the fall of advertising. The good news is, advertising has not fallen. Instead, it has just taken a new shape and form.
I was fortunate to experience first-hand the evolution of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) at Ogilvy. I am still keeping the red book titled Ogilvy Orchestration given to me by my Account Director when I first joined the agency. Hence, integrated communication is in my blood, and I know very well that advertising should never be referred to just an advertisement.
Advertising is always about telling the story of the brand. I witnessed this throughout the evolution of IMC from Ogilvy Orchestration to 360 Degree Brand Stewardship to Brand Ideal. IMC is an ongoing searching process to look for a better way to connect the people involved with the brand, be it customers, staff, media, collaborators, regulators, or investors. Ogilvy has gone from focusing on the bundling of communication channels to the crafting of seamless branding messages. And then eventually to the accountability of the brand. All these are critical building blocks and part of the learning curve on generating a higher ROI for every marketing dollar spent.
The Internet has changed the way we learn, work, play, and shop. Unlike the radio or TV, the Internet is not just a medium or message carrier. It is a complete ecosystem by itself. The digital footprints of the browsers and the spending history and pattern are making things more traceable and measurable. Advertising and marketing at large are becoming more a science. Yet, I always believe that when branding becomes a science, it doesn’t diminish its art and creativity. After all, we are talking about “Consumer Science,” not “Natural Science”. When the human element forms an essential part of the equation, there will always be an important weighting on “creativity”. Especially when people are bombarded by tons of information every single second, only a meaningful story is worth spreading.
In my book Decoding Branding – A Complete Guide to Building and Revamping Brands in the Age of Disruption, I have shared my observations on the new way of compelling story-telling in the digital age:
-Authenticity – genuine and credible
-Affinity – understanding and empathetic
-Attainability – not too far fetched
-Aspiration – uplifting and motivational
-Artistry – entertaining and rewarding
I will write another article on “story-telling” to elaborate on the essence of persuasion in today’s context. In the meantime, let’s conclude our discussion “Is advertising is dead?”. If advertising is defined as a planned action to induce desired consumer behavior, it will always be a critical part of business activities in the commercial world. Except, it should take a more fluid way of reaching, communicating, converting, engaging, and partnering with the consumers. Yes, “partnering” is an inseparable part of relationship-building with customers these days. Customers are no longer consumers only. They play multiple roles in the new ecosystem, including but not limited to “content-creator”. It is a fact that a user will trust the words from another user rather than advertising. Following the traditional wisdom, when you can’t beat them, join them; agencies should find a way to keep their content organic by working with the brand’s users. This is precisely what Al Ries was referring to in his comment that an advertisement should not be something in the past but an expansive story that can capture the audience’s imagination.