Item #6: The Future of Advertising II

Recently, I spoke as a panel member to the MBA class at the York University Schulich School of Business on the topic of The Future of Advertising and Marketing. I shared my thoughts with the audience as a series of headlines, which I’ll share as a little series. Here’s my second in that series:

Headline 2: We Need New Language










I propose that a big part of The Future of Advertising is that we need new language.

I say this in reaction to having recently overheard someone say that “Advertising is dead”. Maybe this is true. If we are talking about the old kind of intrusive, boring, ‘let me tell you, viewer, what I want to tell you and hope you will do precisely what I expect you to do’ kind of ‘advertising’, then, indeed, that kind of ‘advertising’ may very well be dead.

But I contend that engaging content with a commercial message is alive and well.

This year, the Superbowl, the Grammy Awards, the Olympics, and the Oscars all drew record audiences. And, definitively in at least two of those cases, the ‘ads’ were a crucial part of the tune-in interest. This year, viewers could log into a Youtube channel to view all Superbowl ads and rank those they liked most. And a flurry of comments in the online space blossomed on Day 1 of the recent 2010 Vancouver Winter Games with viewers commenting specifically on the Olympic ads.

http://www.youtube.com/user/adblitz

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/2010wintergames/Brilliant+immigrant+another+golden+Olympic+moment/2629960/story.html

Just look to the incredible success of pass-on viral phenomenons like Dove Evolution (at more than 10 million youtube views, yes, it’s still worth referencing) and more recently the Old Spice ‘ads’ (with more than 5 million youtube views in just over a month), or even the instant success of brand-loaded video-film Telephone featuring Lady Gaga and Beyonce (already almost 4 million youtube views in less than two weeks).

Here, we see that the audience is hungry for engaging content even with a commercial message.

I also heard someone say that advertisers need to focus on placing their advertisements where people are watching; the recommendation was to find those properties where people are attentive, and unable or unlikely to skip the commercials and to place your advertisements there.

BUT… if we change our language, and we place our focus on creating engaging content even with a commercial message, then we won’t have to find places to stick ‘advertisements’, they will take flight all on their own.