Commentary
Industry Veterans' Call To Action: Make Advertising Great Again
- by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, April 26, 2024
From my late teens through my late twenties, I was a part-time radio DJ. It was a hobby and I never wanted it to be my profession. But I enjoyed it very much.
When I started DJ-ing, it was at a pirate radio station -- an illegal radio station that broadcast from a secret location and did not pay any dues or taxes… or salary. It was purely a hobby effort from a group of like-minded friends and enthusiasts. It became very successful, and eventually the law caught up with it. Some of my friends from back then developed professional careers as radio presenters, with a few even in TV. Some continued to be a part-time DJ, as a hobby on the side of their actual career. And many more, like me, just didn’t.
Why am I telling you this? Because when you talk to older or former DJs today, they will lament that in the olden days, everything was better. Better music. Better DJs. Better radio stations. More fun. Less rules. But when I think back objectively, was it really better? I feel you can’t really compare an era that has gone by with today’s world.
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Technology has changed everything. Public morale has evolved. The world order is different today than it was 20 or 40 years ago. And that matters. Was there great music 20, 40 or 60 years ago? Of course. Was it fun to make radio back then? Absolutely! But was it objectively “better”? I don’t know.
If I think about our industry, I have the same ambivalence. In the past, the media, creative, client and cultural environment were obviously dramatically different from today. Some things were terrible, like the role of women and minorities in campaigns and in the marketing industry as a whole. Other things were perhaps better, like a less complex and more transparent media environment, and the desire for creative excellence.
Sure, there are still many creatives striving for, and often reaching, creative excellence. But we should also acknowledge that with the advent of always on campaigns in a digital AI world, a lot of content is just merely “there” in the pursuit of clicks, likes and transactions.
I am sharing this, because Brian Jacobs (former executive vice president at Millward Brown and various agencies before that) and Nick Manning (founder of Manning Gottlieb/OMD and former CSO of Ebiquity), both of whom I admire very much, have launched an initiative to address some of the issues they see with the industry today. As Brian put it on his website: “The craft of advertising faces a crisis. And without the craft the business per se is in trouble, adrift in a sea of creative and media sameness without verifiable, solid data to cling on to.”
They have invited anyone active in the industry to join them in a yet-to-be-formalized event that hopes to create an open platform to address some of the issues they see, such as “low levels of viewability and attention, ad fraud, MFA sites, unverified (and often unbelievable) audience data, agencies who make more money from their suppliers than from their clients (thus threatening the very objectivity they’re hired for in the first place), bland creative generated by AI, and an audience that increasingly resents our work.”
That is one hell of an agenda. But I think it is a worthwhile one, because all these issues should be addressed, and they are not. But what do I know? I am just comparing the way things are now to the past.
Agreed, Maarten, but as I commented on Dave Morgan's similar post, the target must---in my humble opinion---be those advertiser CMO's who's money is funding most of these bad parctices---not those who are playing the game. So it's really a question of what forums are used to stir up the pot and, maybe, generate a real reaction--with teeth in it---one that will motivate the ad agencies to reconstitute their old and time honored role as policemen for the media. The only way this will happen is if their clients insist on it---providing this is done in a fair manner --which recognizes that the agencies should be properly rewarded for good media work---not constantly squeezed down to the smallest possible fees.
Advertising is primarily great for the ad people, not the audience. With scarce exceptions, TV ads are unwelcome interruptions and often louder and more insipid than the show. DVRs were the savior for fast-forwarding but ad-supported streamers are bringing back the poorly-behaved visits from sponsors. Even cable operators like Charter/Spectrum are in on the return of forced ads, by discontinuing DVRs to new subs.
But without the ads, Douglas, the "audience" would have very little to watch---so it's a well understood trade-off. Most people have always accepted ads as the price for getting their favorite TV shows. That's what's happening now in streaming---not the reverse.
First off, many thanks Maarten for your kind words and for amplifying the message!
And to those who have commented.
Nick Manning and I have been talking about this topic for ages, our frustrations and concerns may have only recently been made public but this is by no means a new issue either for us or indeed for the industry.
Part of our frustration has been the lack of debate, the apparent acceptance of the status quo.
Ad fraud? Well, meah! What can I do about it? It happens, it sucks but there you go!
When did you last see a large network agency express their concern, or do something about it?
They don't and they're not alone.
It's as if the industry has just accepted that losing huge amounts of money to criminals is somehow just OK.
Or, that everyone is complicit so don't rock the boat with inconvenient truths.
We want to raise these issues not just because the industry loses money but because the byproduct is excessive automation, sameness, lack of originality, lack of creativity and ultimately inefficient and ineffective advertising.
We also see fewer talented people entering the business, leading eventually to a stagnant talent pool, and fewer rewarding and great careers.
So we think this is a battle worth fighting. We may be two old guys shouting into the void and nothing may change, but we think it's worth a go!
We hope many of you reading this will think so too.
If so, you can if you prefer anonymity mail me at brian@bjanda.com.
"Ad fraud, MFA sites, etc."? Sounds like my career highlights at the ANA! Brian and Nick ... count me in!