Advertising is Dead- Long Live Advertising!

As advertisers adopt increasingly sneaky ways of selling their products, Leo Benedictus charts the rise of “stealthy” and “buzz” marketing.

These days it’s quite normal to regard all forms of marketing with loathing. After enjoying a long, golden age of witty, imaginative commercials, the public has now become too cynical – or “marketing literate” – to be taken in by traditional advertising. The average American for example, is exposed to around 3,000 messages every day so it is difficult for each individual message-maker to get noticed.

Even more dangerous for the future of traditional advertising has been the accumulation of evidence that it no longer works. There was a study a few years ago which showed that only 18% of television campaigns in the US generated a positive return on investment, suggesting that most TV advertising, however successful and creatives, is little more that a fun way for a company to waste its money.

It is from this crisis that marketing has emerged into its next revolution.
Interestingly, this time it’s no longer what brands say that is changing, or how they say it, but where. “Previously adverting had specific forms,” say Tom Himpe, author of Advertising is Dead-Long Live Advertising!” If you ask someone, “What s advertising?” They would say billboards, newspaper, ads, cinema and so on. However, these days every possible means of communicating a message is being used and experimented with.”

An extremely innovative and witty example of this experimentation was at a recent whaling conference, where a German animal-welfare group fitted capsules inside the bathrooms, causing the taps to gush ‘blood’. and a New Zealand television channel found a novel way of promoting its showing of the film. The Invisible Man by letting a dog roam the streets, wearing a lead with an invisible owner!

‘Stealth’ advertising of this kind overcomes the problem of falling public interest by leaping out at consumers unannounced and grabbing their attention by force. Being intrusive is probably forgivable if the advertising is entertainingly done. However, if overused or done badly, it sometimes antagonises people and increases their resistance to the message.

One of the most popular ways for a modern brand to win the consumer’s heart is by performing good deeds for them, thereby generate positive unofficial information, or ‘buzz’, about the brand. The company could offer extra value to its customers,or it could perform some act of sponsored public service, such as the renovation of a much-loved swimming pool in Brixton in the UK paid for by Evian water. By organising large football and running events, Nike has also generated positive word-of-mouth for itself, as it has with charitable fundraising, such as their 205 ‘Stand Up Speak Up’ wristbands agains racism.

Most people, one imagines, would prefer to receive a new swimming pool than an ad campaigning out of Evian’s marketing budget. Likewise, it is probably a good thing that Nike and many other brands now spend an increasing proportion of their money on charity work rather than commercials. Whether one respects these companies for their efforts or despises them for trying to buy one’s respect is a decision that each consumer must make for him or herself.

The whole world has a point of view that they hope to convince others to share – whether they are financially motivated to do so or not. We are all free to disagree if we wish. And, sometimes if we let ourselves, we may prefer to believe the hype. Ultimately, we are the only ones who can decide what we want to believe and what we want to buy.