April 2011

Everyone's Business But Our Own

The ad industry is a mess. We don't even know who we are or what we do anymore.

This point was made embarrassingly clear in two articles this week. The first in AdAge was called "Adland's Identity Crisis Leaves Clients' Heads Spinning."

The point of the piece was that
"...ad agencies are fighting harder than ever to stay ahead of the curve. But a funny thing has happened: They're now meeting

Sick Of The Click

One of the principles behind the enthusiasm for online display advertising is the idea that it is "interactive." Advocates for online advertising make the case that interactivity between a person and an ad makes the ad more engaging to the consumer and therefore, more powerful.

It's an argument that, on the surface, has a great deal of logic to it, and is hard to dispute.

However, the argument

When Marketing Geniuses Agree, Run For Cover

Today, we are posting a few quickies...

When Marketing Geniuses Agree, Run For Cover
Some follow-up to yesterday's post about how the ad pundits have been so wrong about TV.
TV spending accounted for about 57% of total advertising expenditures in 2010
TV ad spending grew 60% faster than advertising spending in general
TV viewing was at its highest point ever
Social Media and Business
We

Rewriting History

Here at The Ad Contrarian world headquarters, one of the great amusements of the past year has been watching the pundit digerati backpedaling and rewriting history.

It now seems that a few years ago when the New Age marketing apostles were yapping about the death of the 30-second spot and the impending demise of television they didn’t really mean it.

Joseph Jaffe in "Life After the

True Advertising Tales, #2

Today we have our second installment of "True Advertising Tales."

It comes to us via the great Vinny Warren over at The Escape Pod in Chicago.

This tale first appeared about a year ago in Vinny's blog. Remember, all tales featured in "True Advertising Tales" are certified 100% black angus true agency stories.

“MARLON BRANDO’S MONKEY IS DEAD!”
I actually heard those exact words uttered in a

Women With Their Shirts Off

I had a feeling that headline would get your attention.

A short while ago Adweek asked me to comment on something for them. The premise was this: They would take two ads in the same category -- one contemporary and one from a million years ago -- and have an expert (that's me) evaluate the ads to see which was better.

They wanted the piece to be provocative, so they chose the bra category. Now,

The Cost Of Being First

What was the first company to do a banner ad? Who was first with an iAd? Who had the first YouTube video channel? What company had the first website, or Twitter feed, or Facebook page?

Nobody knows and nobody cares.

There are some areas of business in which being first can mean the difference between life and death. Advertising is not one of them.

While everyone wants to say they are at the “

The Surrender Continues

About a year ago, I wrote a piece called Gutless Ad Weasels. In it I said...
"There is a growing movement among self-hating ad people to declare failure and join the army of digital dimwits."Well, the movement has gathered momentum and has now lead to its logical absurdity. You can find it in an Adweek article called Good Advertising Doesn't Sell. A Manifesto.

I've read this "manifesto" three

Wouldn't It Be Great

Wouldn't it be great if there were hundreds of different YouTubes?
And they were technologically advanced so the video didn't start and stop and drive you crazy while it was loading and bufffering?
And the content wasn't 99% home-made crap, but was actually professionally done?
And you could watch long-form stuff, like movies?
And you didn't have to fuss with it and waste time searching for stuff

True Advertising Tales

Today we introduce a new feature here at The Ad Contrarian called "True Advertising Tales." These are all certified 100% black angus actual agency stories.

Today's True Advertising Tale comes to us from an agency creative director who overheard and documented the following conversation.

Account Supervisor: So, we got 11.6 million impressions for the online campaign.

Account Director: Great

Speaking Words Of Wisdom

It's been a long, hard week.

Then you had to pay your taxes.

You deserve something spiritually uplifting to start your weekend.

Take a deep breath and click "play."

If this doesn't cheer you up, nothing will.

Here Comes The Government

Back in December I wrote a piece for Adweek called Big Brother Has Arrived, and He's Us. In the article I talked about the dangers of tracking on the internet.
"There’s no reasonable way that this is a good development for a free society. There is no realistic vision of the future in which this will not lead to appalling mischief. It’s time for us to say no. It’s time to put aside our petty

How To Improve Your BS Detector

In high school, we were taught that everything in the world is made up of just a few elementary particles like electrons, protons and neutrons.

It's the same in advertising. As I've said on other occasions, the advertising industry is made up of just two elementary components -- ads and bullshit.

Consequently, one of the most valuable skills today's busy ad professional needs to develop is the

Test Your Online Advertising Knowledge

Here's a quiz to test your knowledge of online advertising and marketing.

1. How many ads does Facebook serve on a daily basis?
a) 64,000
b) 640,000
c) 64,000,000
d) 64,000,000,0002. You are twice as likely to be over 95 years old than to...
a) click on a Facebook ad
b) be on the first page of a Google search
c) have more than 100 viewers of your YouTube video
d) have more than 100 Twitter

Let The Strategy Breathe

One of the eternal problems for agency creative directors is the question of strategy versus execution.

How much of advertising should be strategy -- the left brain part, and how much should be imagination -- the right brain part?

In a perfect world creative directors would never have to face this issue. Every brief would contain a glorious strategy and every execution would be brilliant. I am

4 Questions For The Digerati

Let's face it. Digital advertising has been a godsend for the advertising industry.

Three years ago, when the recession hit, the ad business was dead in the water. Digital saved our ass.

For those naifs who believe the nonsense that ad agencies were slow to adopt digital because they could make more money on TV, I can only say forget it. I'll be clearing up that baloney right here next week.

Passion Is A Terrible Thing to Waste

Every now and then, when I have too much time on my hands, I do a Twitter search for "adcontrarian."

It helps me gauge what people are saying about this blog. But what I find more interesting is that it gives me a sense of the type of person who is tweeting about it.

Since I am highly skeptical of the magical properties of digital advertising -- and often whine about it publicly -- I am

Let's Save Pepsi $10 Million

Here at The Ad Contrarian World Headquarters, we are sometimes accused of being too negative. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. Nonetheless, as Marvin Gaye once famously said, "we're all sensitive people."

Consequently, we've decided to do something positive for our friends over at Pepsi. Their Pepsi Refresh project may have turned out to be a pig's breakfast for them, but it's

Why You Need An MBA

I often don't post on Friday. But a post of ours from over 10 days ago called Social Media's Massive Failure continues to generate lots of attention, with thousands of people reading it every day this week.

I thought today I'd provide a few links to a few interesting writers who have also had something to say on this subject.

From AdAge: Do Campaign Failures, High-Profile Firings Signal the

Langganan: Postingan (Atom)

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