Advertising and marketing world: It’s time to fix ourselves

Completely agree Jon.

If only marketers from these big corporations would put their toes to the edge, look over the precipice and take a leap of faith then the advertising world would be in a much better place.

Unremarkable products, and clients unwilling to truly solve consumer problems, and create products/services which tackle real world problems, are holding agencies and their creative potential back.

Therefore, it is our job to educate these marketers as best we can and push them towards the light.

If they aren’t cut out for it or don’t have an itch to break tradition and make positive change then leave them to their expensive media strategies and tiresome, ineffectual campaigns I say.

We should reject these people as clients and partners, and leave them to work with all the other unremarkable people in the industry.

Agree completely. The lack of real creativity and the use of “old ways” might have been brought about by the unwillingness of clients to take any risks at all. I can’t count how many times I have brought what I thought was a brilliant idea to the table, only to be told it is too “out there” and basically forced to create something boring instead. As a young marketer it is rather disappointing and has lead me to disillusionment in the standard channels, I’m going out on my own instead. I didn’t get into marketing to have my creativity stifled by lesser minds!

I completely agree with your creativity point and think it is paramount to success to continually develop and improve knowledge in all areas always. We live in a world that is changing every day, so knowledge should be updated accordingly. Also with advertising, I agree there needs to more than just a constant selling relationship with consumers.
Informative article. 🙂

Thanks for pointing out the obvious, not providing any actual answers, and then blaming it on the client as usual.

Having worked on both agency and client-side, it’s clear that agencies that rant on about clients stifling their creativity and innovation, still don’t ‘get’ what marketers actually do.

Such an interesting article. Even though I agree… it’s scary! Scary that we all need to change so much in order for what is essentially the ‘creative industries’ to survive.
Two thoughts are on my mind:
1. We all know that a new model would require putting our money where our big mouths are and remunerating agencies based on effectiveness. ie: If it doesn’t sell (like it was supposed to) then we don’t get paid? And if the client’s sales expectations are outrageous it would be wise to resign the account and let some other mug promising the world to go under. But really, who has enough money to fund that start-up?
2. We need to collaborate more with other creative industries – film, music, art, writing, digital, social… or risk losing creative control to actual ‘artists’ who will use advertising agencies as their suppliers.

Thanks for your comment, i have also worked on both sides and outside of advertising, also run start-ups and put my own money on the line.

I am glad that you see this as obvious, that’s awesome, do you have any answers to share?

Nothing in what I said blames the clients, in fact the fault can be shared on both sides 50/50.

I truly believe it has become scary because we have left it so long to do anything about it..

In terms of your thoughts, the model needs to change, pay for results is probably a solution but would be commercially hard. Also keeps the focus on advertising as a solution to the problem. But a good point.

Second point, agree. I would go beyond that to bring in every type of creative person we can get our hands on.

All of your articles are the same. We get it, the industry is doomed but what are you doing to fix it? I’m yet to read an article of yours that actually provides a solution or even a real example of work that you’ve done that backs up any of your arguments.

there is not one piece of new thinking in this ‘open letter’ (or is it an article on a trade site?)

it’s not a manifesto to save the industry from itself, its a few thousand words of cliche ridden jargon, one that reads very much like it’s been cut and paste from previous articles you’ve written.

we get it…you’re from a digital background and you think the old methods of communication are no longer effective. that’s magic Jon, if we can get a time machine and get you back to 2002 you may actually get some traction out of this.

It’s great that you’re the MD of an organisation because it implies you have the power to properly impact the work you and your clients put out there. How about you publish some examples that prove the way forward, rather than spout the normal ‘the world is dead’ nonsense that any third year uni student can write.

@ Heard it before

As with all anonymous comments you have added nothing to the conversation.

But you’re right, apart from the 5 points above and the work I have done and continue to do with Global and Local brands to help them to think and act differently.

Glad you read all my articles though.

I agree with the point about defining the problem – when all you’ve got is an advertising hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Interesting point on new talent too, do innovators want to join an industry losing momentum? It’ll take some fresh ideas if we’re going to convince those treading new ground to jump ship

@AlisonF has the right idea to collaborate with creatives in other industries, just weed out the Will.i.ams and the PULS smartwatches first!

Another opinion piece that is little more than a rant from the sidelines.

Are you talking about paid media last? Nice article but there is a lack of specificity on the last point.

“Advertising” , You are a dinosaur, and you are indeed doomed.

I wish there were hope for the sake of the good people in your midst, but there is none.

Some “birds” and “mammals” will remain after your demise and those cousins of yours will evolve onwards, but you are screwed.

(lines 1 and 3 by David Attenboro, line 2 by Morgen Freeman)

Ok, I get it, we are a cynical bunch that writes and comments on these articles, that has been obvious for a while. I am grateful to everyone who has read this and had something to say, however positive or negative.

Anyone who wants to know what we/I do, just get in contact, happy to talk about it.

Big shout to all those people who have known this for a while and are truly changing, you will be the forefathers of a new industry a new boom.

@fleshpeddler – that did make me chuckle, thanks for an early morning laugh. I have been building digital products and service since 1997, what’s really sad is that we have gone backwards from the early days of advertising transformation. You also seem to have missed the core point, that ‘advertising’ and ‘work’ are not going to save us, there are many of us putting in the work behind the scenes, educated, internally transforming and helping all levels of marketers think and act differently.

@Leadbyexample – Hardly from the sidelines, we/I battle all of these points on a daily basis and we do and will continue to try new ways, new thinking and challenging points of view to create change.

@Paul – Yes, paid media, sorry it wasn’t clear.

Lots of requests to share solutions, as with any business or personal IP, sharing what we do and how we do it, wouldn’t be very smart now would it.

@Hearditbefore & @fleshpeddler

You do both make a point about the consistency and topic of what I write, something that has been on my mind for a while.

This is and will continue to evolve & change, feedback is always good, so thank you.

From someone who HAS worked in both marketing and agency land, there’s some very valid points raised. The onus is both on clients to give agencies more freedom & permission to do bigger, bolder things, as well as on the agencies to genuinely inspire them to take a leap and then actually deliver on their promises.

Businesses need to stop trying to get people to care about what we make, and make something people will CHOOSE to talk about. Agencies can bring expertise to help through this process, not just tack on comms after everything else is finalised. Content isn’t king. Brands aren’t publishers. Selling something awesome is king.

**THIS POST CONTAINS NO ANSWERS**

My career in advertising is relatively new, however if i can see the stagnant nature of how many are conducting business within an industry that prides itself on innovation and lateral thought from such a short time, i find it hard to believe that others much more weathered than i can be so oblivious.

How can we expect to communicate with evolving people if we don’t want to evolve with them?

Great businesses in all industries has become so from challenging constructs and redefining themselves. The only way forward is to move any way but forward.

A lot of people have been asking for you to show what work you have done that actually backs up what you’re trying to say. We’re still waiting…

How can ‘work’ not save us when it’s what we are paid to do?

Nice rant but maybe put your money where your mouth is and actually do something rather than talk about it?

Maybe produce a solution that actually shows us you’re right and then write an article about how great your solution is. Now that would be a refreshing read.

@Jon you missed my point. For someone who is in a leadership position you could practice what you preach. However you provide nothing that demonstrates what you say is valid. I took a quick look at what your agency does and I’d suggest not only are you not in the game at all, you’re more likely in the car park waiting for a turn on the field. This article suggests to me that you’re frustrated and have lashed out at your competitors and clients because there’s a failing somewhere that’s easier to level at an industry. True?

I take issue with people like yourself who continue to spout crap about agencies and the industry, but do so from a position that is anything but informed. Until then it’s a rather baseless opinion.

I guess this is what I was trying to say…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOiVhNr7Qms

Hi Jon, I agree that the industry as a whole as become risk averse – largely driven by fear. Where long term relationships and partnerships used to be the norm, we now see agency village models, project based agreements and clients hiring more strategic and creative resources in house. All the more reason to re-invent ourselves and differentiate based on future value.

@Leadbyexample – Thanks for your thoughts, helpful and always good to know that you know better than us what we do and how we do it and where we stand.

@Stillwaiting – that’s a fair point, when I do want to give away the solution to the future, that has to of course be driven by me, you will be the first to know 🙂

There’s a bit of banter going on here with a mix of lovers and haters. This is a good thing as I’m pretty sure everyone would like to see more of this near/far future Jon describes happening in their day to day work lives. After all, there is a lot of mundane work out there as a result of agencies and clients playing it way too safe.

A lot of what Jon says is quite extreme and rebellious. But that’s okay with me, the industry needs more people like Jon kicking it in the asshole. Is it rebellious to say paid media last? I don’t think so. When all the kids out there are making great content rapidly and getting it shared and seen for free, I’d say paid media last thinking is fine. But as Jon says, paid media is a good thing, it can help take a great idea out to the masses and give it the attention it deserves. But sadly it’s often used as a tool to polish a turd or simply roll it in glitter.

Change is happening and consistency and perseverance will slowly get better thinking over the line. It’s about agencies taking the leaps with the underdog/challenger brands and baby steps with the bigger and safer brands with proof that it works.

It’s funny and quite telling how most commenters lash out at the author, the fact that all of this is obvious and said before. However, no one actually contradicts any of his arguments. The reason is that the points made are valid.

The main problem with advertising as an industry is its laziness and ostrich approach to dealing with a problem. As you pointed out correctly, we have the data, but we continuously come to the wrong conclusions. Not because we can’t see the “obvious”, but we’re far too happy to ignore it and have our heads in the nice warm sand.

As a result we are probably one of the slowest evolving industries out there and not the creative hub of innovation we like to pretend to be to the outside world. If you look at the oversaturated world of advertising that we are currently living in it is a surprise the industry has survived this long.

Large brands are challenged by start-ups all the time. Start-ups that have found other and more meaningful ways to communicate with their consumers without the enormous media spend. As a result, brands are challenged to think differently, communicate differently and basically reinvent themselves by providing actual value to their customers… or die. Why then do advertising agencies belief their traditional business models will make it to the next decade?

It’s all well and good for the agency world to believe radical change is needed, but unless clients are on board it goes nowhere. There’s too big a gap between agency and client thinking and so great ideas are rejected or reduced to rubble. We should try to inspire/drive them like we do our own teams and start treating them like partners/ colleagues and not clients.

Agree! Re media – a lot of clients tend to put all of their faith in the media pushing the idea, but if the idea is worthless, then they’re throwing money down the drain. We need to get to the root of the problem and deliver on objectives in a new and interesting way. “Customers” aren’t idiots waiting for marketing to make their decision for them – they can see stale advertising coming a mile off.

I’ve had enough of this Jon. You do say the same thing every time you post, and every time you post you flame the entire industry.
I’ve never won a black pencil, but i am proud of the work i’ve done. So in future, keep your opinions to yourself, and go about your rescue mission quietly, with a bit more dignity.

Tom McGillick

Great to see the conversation continuing to happen in Oz, it is largely unsolved here in the US as well. Very unsolved.

My only addition is that time not only will tell, it is telling.

@Tom McGillick

You are entitled to your opinion. As with everything free choice, you don’t have to read and you don’t have to agree. Glad to see the passion though and glad you are proud of your work. So am I.

Hi Jon,

This post contains no answers, only the same rhetorical nonsense I consistently see on this site about “lets fix ourselves”

This reminds me of how I coasted through university – broad, top level, sweeping statements that were generally related to the discussion point. I was 18 at the time and it worked – the readers should not be so foolish to be taken in by a lazy article like this.

Ill save my bravos for Dr Mumbo.

That’s right as Australian Marketing, Advertising, News, PR and Sales, they are all failing Big Time due to using old techniques and not adapting to ICT.

If one looks at the article that Marketing Magazine(Australia) came out with ‘How to create a customer-centric culture within your organisation’, it shows that the country still wants to depend on a relationship-building culture.

This would have been good if Australia was succeeding in Marketing and Sales as relationship-building is also needed but sadly, the country does not do well in many aspects of Marketing and Sales.

WHAT ARE THE ASPECTS THAT AUSTRALIA DOES NOT DO WELL IN MARKETING AND SALES

Let’s have a look:
1) Taking customer-centric area like relationship-building which the country focuses on so much as can be seen under job sites like seek.com.au, mycareer.com.au, careerone.com.au, oneshift.com.au, Airtasker and many more, Australia doesn’t do so well in the Global Customer Satisfaction Benchmark. According to Zendesk Customer Satisfaction Benchmark, Australia has been falling behind while New Zealand has been beating the country. Also, taking after-sales service amongst vehicle owners alone, Australia does not perform well according to J.D. Asia Pacific 2013. In addition, according to the Brandshare study, brands are failing to build meaningful customer relationships;

2) Taking the following examples, which are genuine Australian sources, it will show that the Australian organisations do not perform well or adapt fast to various information and communication technologies (And why is it important amongst SMEs? It is important amongst SMEs because SMEs represent more than 99% of businesses within Australia which is why Australia is called a small business nation):
a) Australian marketers lagging behind in technology
b) Marketer study warns of skills shortages in digital marketing in Australia
c) Two-thirds of Australian marketers aren’t effective at digital
d) Is Australia lagging behind the rest of the world in big data?
e) 65% of Australian firms lack integrated data management
f) Australian businesses struggling with cross-channel marketing
g) Aussie marketers still struggling with single customer view and ROI
h) Aussie retailers fall behind content marketing trend
i) Drowning in data: Marketers’ big data complacency
j) 3 in 10 marketers don’t understand Customer Behaviour
k) Are Aussie marketers scared of mobile?
l) Accenture Study: Australian Organisations Lagging in Data Satisfaction
m) Being left behind by big data: How tech illiteracy can kill small businesses
n) How Small Business is Missing the Tech Revolution

In addition to above, Australia ranks low amongst world brands (Brandirectory.com of Brandfinance.com or Interbrand of Omnicom or BrandZ of WPP would show that). Furthermore, Australia ranks low for global start-ups.

Lastly, Australia ranks low on Alexa and Socialbakers in comparison to US, UK, China, India, Philippines, Thailand and many more.

WHY DOES AUSTRALIA NOT DO WELL IN MARKETING AND SALES

Is the answer due to the fear in change or the fear in Sciences including Mathematics and Technology or is it a combination of both?

Taking the following examples, which are genuine Australian sources, it will show that the Australians lack Science skills including Mathematics and ICT while Aussie marketers, journalists, advertisers, PR and sales personnel including leaders and managers lack analytical skills, good reading habits, innovative skills and many more:
1) Google chief warns of skills shortages
2) From clever to complacent: Australia falling behind on innovation, says chief scientist
3) OECD report finds Australian students falling behind
4) Australian women lag behind men in numeracy skills: ABS
5) Two-thirds of Australian businesses aren’t prepared for 2020’s workforce
6) Alarming lack of workplace training opportunities in Australia
7) Growing fear of outsourcing in IT sector
8) Online hiring – Australian businesses lead the world
9) Traditional marketers thinking that the new types of marketing are nearly similar to the old types of marketing when they are not (outbound or traditional marketing techniques not similar to inbound or new marketing techniques and integrated marketing). Also, inbound marketing takes time
10) Aussies spend big on technology, but don’t know how to use it
11) Fear of the computer nerd is leaving gaping hole in Australia’s $36 billion IT industry
12) If Australia Could Get Over Its ‘Fear of Failure’ Tech Startup Firms Could Contribute $109B to Economy by 2033, Create 540,000 New Jobs – Google Study
13) Australia behind in teaching kids startup skills
14) Australian workplaces need much better leaders and managers

Additionally, many of its innovative firms have left for US, UK and some of the Asian nations which includes Atlassian that left for UK (Atlassian is one of Australia’s leading start-ups).

This has eventually led to Australia depending on foreigners for its survival. If one looks at it, out of the top 2000 Australian firms, 700 or so are foreign owned which includes BHP with 75% foreign ownership, Rio – 85%, Xstrata 100% and so on. And this continues with brands where 85% of the products within a supermarket trolley are either from an imported country or from a foreign owned company. The same has slowly started occurring with Australian properties including farmlands.

Even export wise, Australia’s 4th largest export sector after iron ore, gold and coal happens to be the tertiary education where it gets most of its revenue from international students. That includes the housing where international students are cash cows.

Thus, will Australia be able to change its complacent, laid back style or would it become part of some other nation?

Source: http://australiaforeignownedno.....sales.html

Here’s a perfect example from Myer of creating a ‘nice’ ad yet having a terrible product/service undermining it… Just look at the comments.

https://staging.mumbrella.com.au/myer-relaunches-brand-as-clemenger-bbdo-melbourne-devises-find-wonderful-258734

@Joe Grenon

Thanks for the depth and adding to the overall discussion. Rare in these forums.

@Fraser

Totally true, and thanks for actually reading the article.

@Fleshlight

Well you were a very smart student, glad to see the obvious is instilled in you. People like you will help to make the changes, so these obvious sweeping statements can stop being discussed.