My issue with advertising today is that it's not like advertising of yesterday.
Oh, I'm well aware of how that makes me look like some old dinosaur that "doesn't get it." But, I'm more of the mind that today's marketers don't get it. And by it, I mean the mighty game-changing power of a well thought out campaign.
Allow me to unpack this admittedly old school theory.
Many clients today are smitten with digital. I understand that. So much shopping takes place online. Mobile phones have our undivided attention. And most importantly, digital is dirt cheap.
Consequently, many clients chase eyeballs with banner ads that don't get clicked, mobile thigamajigs that get lost among a hundred other apps thigamajigs and whoseywhatsits, and social media influencer campaigns that are nothing more than glorified Yelp reviews.
But what if I'm wrong?
What if each of these digital venues is highly successful, after all we do live in a digital multi-screen world that is far different than the advertising arena of yesteryear. Our attention spans are spread thinner than Jared Kushner's ability to right the world.
Fine, but by that logic there's an excellent chance that the Motivated Aspirer who saw your banner ad yesterday has never seen nor will ever see the Youtube video you released last month, you know the one with 5,139 views.
And the 237 people enrolled in your Instagram coloring book contest will never see the obnoxious page takeover you engineered on catswhoknit.com
My point being that it all has become so flattened out the components never play off each other. Or, as we Old Schoolers used to say, they never "Ladder Up."
Laddering Up is the notion that people would see the messaging on your outdoor boards mirrored with the same strategic messaging as your TV commercials and complemented by the compatible and persuasive messaging in your print ads and radio spots. And, through this crazy notion of cumulative communication, a brand proposition would emerge.
My friend and fellow curmudgeon blogger George Tannenbaum writes about it here.
It's the same old school process that gave us:
Bounty. The Quicker Picker Upper.
Fedex. When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight.
Avis. We try harder.
BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.
Then again, why take it from me? I'm just a washed up 44 year old full of piss and vinegar and enough righteous indignation for 10 men.
In that case take it from Lee Clow, a guy who knows a thing or two about advertising. Under his wise stewardship, Steve Jobs, then CEO at Apple, swore off any digital mishigas and committed his entire advertising budget exclusively to TV, outdoor and print.
He laddered that company up to be the richest one on the planet.
Not only have we run out of attention spans, but also the luxury of telling clients the truth about what they should do with their advertising, in fear of losing our jobs/margins/yachts/second yacht/summer houses/fancy NYC penthouse apartments/$210m bonus payout over 5 years.
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