I remember when I was about 10 years old and I went to the cinema to watch the latest Disney movie with my parents, I remember enjoying watching the ads that were shown before the trailers. The ads were literally “wow!”, there was something moving in them, either the music choice, the graphism, the emotions they were sparkling… etc.
The advertising industry has drastically changed since, the mediums have changed, with more and smaller screens available, more “metrics” and a greater focus on ROI etc…
I suspect Don Draper’s amazing sales skills wouldn’t be sufficient nowadays.
I particularly remember the Chanel advert : Egoiste.
This kind of ads, along with the famous Cadbury ad, have had an impact and shaped my view and my want to work in the Advertising Industry. I viewed it as a modern type of Art.
By the time I graduated and finally worked in Advertising, a couple of years had gone by and things had changed… marketing got a bit more “sophisticated”. Digital advertising has definitely taken over the media plans and the measurements options, the creative possibilities are evolving fast, maybe too fast. So fast, that we barely have time to master and understand the way it all works together, we constantly having to adapt to new ways to advertise, optimise, measure etc… It’s fascinating but also exhausting…
This fast evolving and complex digital landscape makes us focus on: measurement, ROI, the number of people reached, video views rather than beautiful, emotional, advertising… Just because we CAN measure everything doesn’t mean we have to .
Don’t get me wrong, I’m convinced we can still do beautiful advertising. The recent Nike- “Do you believe in more?” ad was one of the best I saw in a long time! Why ? Simply because:
- The video didn’t look like an ad, more like a music video
- The creative style reminds me of Beyonce Lemonade video – taps into popular culture, bang on!
- It carries a beautiful message of empowerment and self-acceptance.
- I saw the campaign everywhere, on Youtube, on Facebook, on the Waterloo roundabout… it was integrated across all touch points!
This is the type of advertising that I would like to see more and not only for Christmas. Mog’s Christmas Calamity by Sainsbury, Close the loop by H&M, Sapeurs by Guinness are ads that made me feel something, which I consider as GREAT advertising.
The sad thing is, I discovered most of them on sites such as Adweek, Campaign, the Drum etc… because I work in the Industry.
In the meantime, I frequently being targeted by irrelevant and poor quality advertising and I can’t remember any recent commercials from the few times I went to the cinema.
There is something wrong going on…
Advertising has become sophisticated and complicated. There are more players (agencies, advertisers, platforms, publishers) involved in the industry and they are disconnected.
Those “turbulences”, have made us focus on the wrong angle. What we all need to remember is that, even though the mediums have changed, People haven’t…
Recent speeches and initiatives from P&G, Marc Pritchard and Mark Zuckerberg makes me think that things are going to change.
It’s about time!