by Mimi Nicklin (@MimiNicklin) There are an infinite number of articles written that profess the end of advertising as we know it. Whether its print, or TV, or digital banners, they have all been claimed to be “dead” or dying at some point in the last few years, and indeed the debate continues as to whether there is truth somewhere in these statements.
It would seem to me that, on the whole, we advertising folk are great exaggerators.
Our inability to see
None of the above is really ‘dead’ or dying or defunct, but simply changing, morphing and constantly moving. As with our own lifestyles and consumption habits, our industry needs to be an ever-changing cycle of opinions, tastes, and fads. It is our inability to see these nuances that creates the real problem.
If only we could stand back and make the effort to truly understand why things are changing and why it is that the aforementioned advertising may appear less effective or engaging than it previously was.
In an industry run by the under 35s, are we all too ‘Gen Y’ in our impatience for change — and our obsession for fast-moving innovation — to take note of that which is really changing?
Culture. It is surely culture, society and human beings that are really changing. Perhaps when we are really honest, our problem as an industry is our inability (or impatience) to keep up with the ‘speed of culture’ versus the ‘speed of our need’ to continually innovate and rebuild and relook the models? Is it ‘advertising’ that’s changing, or is it simply the people whom we are talking to?
Acutely similar
I recently spent some time reviewing work from the 1960s and ’70s, with the intent of noting the critical “evolution” in advertising to further understand if my industry is a lost cause. What struck me was that, when you review the work from days gone by with the work out there today, they are acutely similar. The media change, certainly, and the delivery and production values have certainly become more sophisticated and diverse but, when you look beyond the ‘gloss’, the work is remarkably close.
Both then and now we are selling stories, creating personalities that consumers will follow and delivering functional benefits hidden within a higher order need.
“Storytelling” is the buzz word of the day today but is this truly new? I don’t think so.
“Big data” comes in second place but, again, I would debate that the theory here is anything but new.
Not new news
Indeed, we have more access to more data within central systems, but the use of data to create insights and to tell stories that sell product? This is not new news. It doesn’t mean TV or print advertising is dead, just because it doesn’t have a data collection mechanic or a real-time personalised message attached to it.
So is it really the consumers who are killing advertising? Is it their fragmented attention spans and fickle loyalty that is killing the specialism as we know it? Can we blame these pencil-portrait segmentation models that disguise normal people as distant ‘consumers’ for responding less to our work?
My answer would be no.
We can’t blame them and we can’t blame the industry. We can only blame ourselves.
What is actually changing?
If we don’t put the energy and time into truly understanding ‘consumers’ and their cultures, we will spend the next decade panicking further that ‘advertising is dead’ — when it is our energy to constantly reinvent the role of creativity and strategy that is being depleted.
Advertising is changing — absolutely. The advertising of the future looks very different. Our brands need higher utility to reflect what “consumers” really do (versus what we want them to do); brands will need to deliver on experience and service beyond unbeatable brilliance of function; and they will need to be guided by a purpose and not a “positioning statement” — but it’s not the industry they live in that is dying a slow or contorted death.
Advertising has the potential to mean more to people today than it ever has before. If we don’t embrace the need for cultural relevance and insightful reflection of society in South Africa, we too will suffer from the statistics that prove that ‘most’ Americans state total indifference to the theoretical disappearance of 80% of the brands they know.
Let’s be truly honest
So, if we are truly honest with ourselves, is it the consumers/millenials/the times/technology (the list goes on!) that are killing advertising as we know it?
Or is it us?
Mimi Nicklin (@MimiNicklin) followed her passion and experience in the consumer, retail and shopper space from regional roles in Europe and Asia, to South African shores in 2010. Having led global brands through the line for Procter & Gamble, and two of London and Hong Kong’s top agencies, her background gives her an international perspective to add to her depth of SA understanding. She serves as strategic director and a partner at 34 Group. Mimi contributes the monthly “The Sell” column concerning shopper marketing to MarkLives.
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