Maths Men, Mad Men
Growth hacking is alive and well in the advertising industry.
Sir Martin Sorrell, one of the brightest strategic brains in the history of advertising and CEO of large communications holding group WPP, recently made a digital call to arms for the whole industry:
We are increasingly embracing the application of technology to our business, along with big data, which means we are Maths Men as well as Mad Men.
We compete not only with advertising and marketing and market research groups , but also with the new technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Amazon (which are essentially new media owners) and with technology consulting companies such as Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Accenture and Deloitte (our auditors!).
Like any form of disruptive technological change, our industry has taken a while to get used to it - and make it part of our business processes. Those of us working in the industry can easily wax lyrical and nostalgic about the ‘old days’ and ‘glory years’.
Things were certainly simpler when creative ideas were literally composed of art and copy. Radio and television came and disrupted the industry, and a new generation of agencies emerged. While our media has changed dramatically, our processes and operational models haven’t adjusted as fast.
Indeed, it took more than a decade for digital/online marketing to start becoming a serious conversation between established ad agencies and their clients.
However, I’m not here to moan. I’m here to celebrate the unintended consequence of this glacial shift to digital. Faced with limited budgets, enthusiastic clients and the tremendous opportunities that new tech afforded marketers,the Mad Men who were working in digital adapted.
We - Sorrell’s Maths Men - created our own brand of growth hacking.
Advertising agencies all over the world are full of us. Whatever our job titles - Digital Director, Digital Strategist, Social Planner - we spend hours each day creating little hacks and crunching data to drive more Returning Visitors, Likes and get business results for our clients.
We build websites, apps, Facebook Pages and countless digital experiences on a scale that dwarfs the tiny little bubbles of entrepreneurial startups that exist off the beneficience of the State, venture capitalists and the occassional trust fund.
True, us Maths Men are those awful breed of people who come up with new ways to plaster your web experience with ads. We created the YouTube Pre-Rolls designed to ruin your party playlist. We make sure your Google browsing experience is full of ads, too.
However, what matters is that our industry fuels innovation and intelligent social application of technology. On a big, global scale too. Nike’s digital sport products like Fuelband and Nike+ were pioneered with the help of ad agencies. We helped Barack Obama to win the Democratic Primaries and subsequent General Election with clever digital advertising. Don’t forget Earth Hour, which was an advertising campaign - not a state-led initiative or startup idea. Indeed, advertising award shows endlessly showcase digital social justice campaigns that rely heavily on growth hacking.
The discipline of growth hacking in the advertising industry has nearly two decades of rich experience. The tapestry of knowledge that comes from our senior digital leaders - on how to build amazing digital experiences that drive brand objectives, on clever strategy, on how to launch a website or app successfully - is easily equal to that of the current batch of successful startup founders.
The next time you think of growth hacking, don’t just think of a bunch of clever Silicon Valley residents boosting their ARPU for their SAAS products. You can be assured that there are thousands of Maths Men working at ad agencies all over the world grinding out strategy, art, copy and code. We are growth hackers too.
