Efficiency Is Neutering Advertising



The decline in advertising effectiveness is a result of the brogasm discharged all over the ad world by the unholy alliance of tech bros and finance bros getting together and convincing advertisers that advertising is math.

You like efficiency? You like systems? You like data? Us too.

In the world they have created, the six-second ad on YouTube and TikTok is seen as more efficient because your money looks like it goes a lot further than in thirty-second increments.

You can hit more people by throwing quarters vs. dollars.

A definition of efficiency that has to do with the number of impressions, not impact.

This kind of thinking has become prevalent because it's easy to measure the quantity of impressions in digital media but it’s hard to measure the quality of impressions.

BUT, increasing your impressions is not the same as increasing impact.

Which is what really matters.

In their quest for a definition of efficiency that's about reach, they have neutered what advertising is good at - generating quality impressions/associations/feelings about brands that people can access when it comes time to buy, which in turn, has long-term sales lift benefits. Research proven.

When you make advertising this way you are destined to make ads that are uninteresting to watch and totally forgettable.

Humans are attracted to, spend time with, and think about, things that are interesting. Even advertising.

That's what makes Interesting advertising more efficient.

People wanted to watch, talk about, and watch again Old Spice, Dream Crazy, and The Most Interesting Man in The World.

Advertising that lives rent-free in people's minds.

That is always going to be more efficient than advertising that disappears once the viewing is over.

I'm not saying go back in time.

On the contrary, we need to step up our game not by giving in to what the bros want but by taking this world that they created and applying the lessons that we’ve learned about advertising so they deliver long-term value in this world efficiently.

Can we do this in a way that is fit for grown (wo)men?

I don’t have any misconceptions that we’re going to slow capitalism's sleep-walking death march to greater efficiency.

But, it does appear we need to renew Bernbach's 1947 rallying cry for advertising...

"Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.”

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