In 1996, Seth Godin had this to say to Fast Company…
“I guarantee you that by the year 2000, Internet banner ads will be gone.”
Oops.
Let’s be fair to Seth. He’s a very smart guy and he has been right about a lot of things. But the problem with the above statement, like so many aspects of marketing these days, is that it is rooted in ideology.
Seth’s ideology was “permission marketing.” He believed that the “interruption model” of traditional advertising was on the way out, and that in order to communicate effectively with consumers, marketers would need their “permission.”
Like much of new age marketing philosophy, it sounds lovely. The problem is that the world is impossibly complicated. Having operating principles is fine, but being ideologically committed to a “big idea” often ends in a train wreck.