DISQUS

alan p · 1 year ago

Nic, you are right but what you are really hearing here is the pain of the dominant "creative" culture within Adland seeing power slip away as the online new technology is far more measurable.

Wish we knew what all the measurements meant though ;)

ivanpope · 1 year ago

Welcome back!

Alx Klive · 1 year ago

Insightful post... the point about 'breaking the link' is good and is already happening. Graphic design marketplaces are springing up online, where designers compete for projects in an open fashion, and we make use of them to develop the 'creative' behind our online ad campaigns. We then manage the buying of this inventory ourselves and use services that auto-optimize our Google advertising (for example), ultimately leading to a far more efficient, effective and economical campaign for our startup. When we need a TV ad, we'll go to the ad agencies... then again, maybe not. Ad agencies need to adapt and acquire, like all the other legacy businesses being affected by the Internet.

nic · 1 year ago

Chris - thanks for an interesting comment. I guess I feel that in the future it will be harder to have a strong brand overlaying a commodity proposition - there is so much information available to consumers these days that it is really hard unless you have a genuinely good product. To your examples - I suspect that Stella maintains its position through control of the supply chain and lack of meaningful competition, but also wouldn't be surprised to see them moving backwards, and Nike has genuinely good design.

Finally - a tailor made brand makes sense for companies that are big enough to merit it, and creativity will remain important, but if you separate that from media buying the world will start to look very different to how it does today.