Advertising doesn’t work any more

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Advertising today mostly yells at target groups instead of inviting people to engagement and conversation (of course there are exceptions — we’re getting better).

Brands and their agencies rarely show an understanding that people like it when you, as a brand, approach me with an understanding of me as a person, not a target group. Talk to me and I’ll listen. If I’m interested, I’ll answer.

Almost four years ago now, I filed the papers for my new business, the advertising agency A New Dialogue. When I made our first website, the headline on page one said “Advertising doesn’t work any more…so I started an advertising agency.” This is more true than ever, and this article is an attempt at explaining what I mean.

To avoid advertising

For those few who still watch linear, scheduled TV progams and therefore get regularly assaulted with commercials, you know that when that commercial comes on, that’s your cue to do something else, even if it’s checking your phone for the latest news or going to the kitchen.

The ads that occupy space in newspapers and magazines, for those who still like old news or the rustling sound of paper, I don’t think there are many of us that could name even two adverts after having read through an entire newspaper. To also act on that ad in the paper feels even more foreign.

For most banner ads, no more than one person out of about two thousand will click on it.

We quickly learned to ignore online ads, we don’t even notice them anymore. There’s even numbers to back this up. The CTR (click through rate) on banner ads online — in other words; how many of the people the ad was displayed to, actually clicked on it — is so low it’s almost not worth measuring. On average, no more than one person out of two thousand will click on it. Then it’s the question of taking care of those who do click and guide them to a successful close. This often fall in the hands of the target website and advertiser to take care of at their best ability. An advertising agency, or any communications specialist for that matter, is rarely invited to improve the possibility of a smooth transition with an understanding of a customer’s needs.

And then we have Ad Blockers that remove advertising all together from our digital experiences. Around 25% of Swedish internet users have an Ad blocker installed according to the latest data I could find.

The attention noise

On top of all this fact that we’re actively trying to avoid advertising, the advertisers are therefore trying compensate by yelling more and louder. Like a poor fisherman that has over fished and the fish population is dwindling and therefore chooses to fish more and more to compensate for the lack of fish, instead of adapting to the current situation by looking at a sustainable alternative.

The advertisers also have to be seen in more channels to be heard through the noise of all the other messages. This means more cost which means that you have to cut down on something else, and unfortunately it’s often the creativity and finish that suffers.

What we have left is a carpet bombing of mediocre adverts in a growing media landscape. Adverts that the viewer is trying it’s hardest to ignore.

To sell today

It’s not only the advertising that’s not working any more, the way we make purchases today is vastly different from how we bought things just a few years ago.

We are more likely to trust an impartial stranger than advertising messages.

Our ways of buying things differ of course depending on what type of purchase it is. But if we take an example in personal electronics — a mobile phone. Today we are much more likely to already know what phone we want based on recommendations from people you trust in some way. Even if we don’t use our network of friends and family, we are generally more up to date on what’s on the market and we have a basic understanding of what our personal needs are. We then seek out this product based on our specific, personal needs. Then we search for who sells it at the best price. Another aspect is the brand and how it appeals to you and your personal style and life situation. This is where advertising can actually see an increase in importance, to help the brand to clearly communicate its core beliefs, its personality and its view on life. All these aspects become more and more important to us as customers. What smart and creative companies need to do today is to clearly communicate its brand and its products that speaks to the dividual of today.

I’m not a damn target group

I am a sum of my experiences in the context and age I have experienced them. I am a sum of my fields, and I’m as fluent in Mods culture from the sixties that I never experienced as I am in cutting edge start-up culture and its approach to an ever changing world.

An advertiser’s picture of me as a part of a target group would most likely miss the picture completely.

I understand the spirit of hippie communes from the seventies as my first memories are from that age, although I grew up in a suburb with a firm sense of stability and safety. I understand the revolt of punk during the end of the seventies although I made other choices. I understand the roots of Hip Hop and the block parties in New York back in the day as well as the Dancehall and Rasta culture from Jamaica at the same time as I understand post-punk and garage rock that flourished during the same era. I understand the irony of the nineties, the phenomenon YouTubers and the memes of today. I understand the older generation’s diligent pursuit of value that only comes from achieving something through struggle. I understand the spirit of revolt during 1968, a year before I was born. I can even understand where a racist gets his or her views from, even though my perspective is a firm opposite to their skewed view of our reality. I also understand the need of belonging and cheering for a sports team even though my personal interest in most sports are close to non existent.

The list of contradictions that has made me who I am in this moment in time is infinite. Who I am tomorrow, nobody knows.

I am a product of all these impressions and experiences, so to just see me as a 47 year old advertising agency executive that lives in a co-op apartment in Stockholm with my girlfriend and our two year old son with a relatively low income and a used car, that “visits the internet” on average more than two times a day — would that give you a correct picture of me today? An advertiser’s picture of me as a target group would probably miss the target by a long shot.

Don’t underestimate my intelligence.
Don’t over estimate my engagement.

Usefulness

Advertising today reaches beyond the medium. Why shouldn’t an advertising agency be a part of creating an advertisers website or other digital markets? What happens if creativity from a communicative standpoint is established on management level in a company with the purpose to make the whole business model better? If you make your communication useful for the receiver or end user of that communication and get the benefits from the advertiser’s perspective at the same time? If you, instead of just making something labeled “advertising”, for example would make communicative services that genuinely help the customer in their daily challenges while at the same time clarifying the values and advantages with their products or services? We know that in this area called reality, there’s room for magic.

…so I started an advertising agency

I started A New Dialogue because I, through my knowledge and experience, genuinely want to help businesses and brands to navigate the evolving, always changing communication landscape where the established attitudes in advertising are quickly becoming ineffective and even irrelevant. Traditional advertising such as print ads and TV ads are still needed, but their role is changing. A brand’s tonality needs to be developed strategically with the help of professionals in the area of communication to become clearer for the viewer. Advertisers need to become better at showing the actual, real benefit that you can bring to our lives.

If a product doesn’t solve a problem, no one cares.

The use can naturally be something as simple as to entertain, but it can also mean building a tool that shows me that you as a company understands my needs. This tool should of course also be of benefit to the advertiser’s business.

All of a sudden you don’t have to yell louder, just speak to us who appreciate you for who you are and as someone who wants to be a part of our lives, naturally. The choice has to be mine though.

Today’s advertising agency also have to work naturally with an understanding for digital development. That’s why I prioritized this from the start of our agency almost four years ago. We have a cutting edge digital production team in-house to meet these needs in combination with a solid understanding of creative and effective, strategic communication. I feel this is a winning concept, and confirmation that we are on the right track is something we get every day.