Juli 2013

The Light At The End Of The Internet

On May 20th, on the subject of "native advertising," I wrote...

"Nobody seems quite sure what they mean by native advertising. But I
think I know what they mean. They don't know it yet, but they mean using
traditional advertising strategy on the web."
For years, while the cultural impact of the web has grown enormously, I've been skeptical of its alleged brilliance as an advertising medium.

Playing The Other Guy's Game

Over 20 years ago I left the agency business for the first time. We had sold our agency to a "global" network and after two years of working for them I decided it was not the life for me. I took the money and ran.

For three years thereafter I did creative services (mostly TV spots) directly for clients. In that three-year period I pitched against ad agencies half a dozen times. I only lost once

Advertising Industry Gives Up

I would like to be all outraged and upset by the announcement that Omnicom and Publicis are merging. But I can't. It is just the advertising industry's way of telling us that it has joined the parade.

As in so many other fields, the ad industry has discovered that it is way more profitable to provide a mediocre product to a lot of people than a high quality product to a few.

Just look at the

THE RISE OF THE AUTHOR COLLECTIVE

Today, in the first of a series of discussions with other author collectives, I discuss the value of author collectives for indie publishers, with Five Directions Press, on the Triskele blog.

Friday Follies

Sad But Funny
George Zimmer, recently dislodged founder and long time TV and radio spokesman for the Men's Wearhouse, had this to say about ad people:

"...what really drives
success, in my experience, is repetition and consistency, not
creativity. I think people who are in the [ad] business tend to get more
hung up on the creative aspects. They start to think of themselves more
as artists

What Are BDAs Really Good At?

Recently I was talking with the ceo of a tech company about doing some consulting for them. We were having a nice conversation when he said, “But, Bob, the one thing that concerns me is that we are a business-to-business company and you spent your whole advertising career doing consumer advertising and marketing."

I acknowledged the truth of the statement and then went on to use one of my

The 5 Dumbest Ideas About Online Advertising

The phenomenal rise of the internet as a medium of communication, information, and entertainment has given rise to some equally phenomenal conceptual flops about advertising.

Back in the day, online advertising was going to "change everything." It has changed nothing. Advertisers are still mostly doing on the web exactly what they did in traditional advertising -- bugging the shit out of us

eBay: Paid Search Is Worthless

A study done by eBay on the effectiveness of paid search for established brands has found it to be worthless.

The eBay study called Consumer Heterogeneity and Paid Search Effectiveness: A Large Scale Field Experiment (no, I'm not kidding) concluded...

There is no short-term value in brand keyword advertising.

Stopping brand keyword advertising resulted in no detectable drop in traffic and

The Devolution Of Social Media Marketing

Every time I try to explain to someone who is not in the ad business (and some people who are) why social media marketing has been a disappointment, I get the same response:

"But how can you say that? Facebook has over a billion users... Twitter is the medium people have used to overthrow governments... Pinterest is this and Instagram has that...and...my daughter is constantly using social

INDIE BOOK OF THE DAY

Very pleased to learn that Spirit of Lost Angels was selected as Indie Book of the Day Award Winner for 13th July, 2013. They also sent me a lovely certificate and badge:

Top 10 Mistakes When Advertising To Grown-Ups

Yesterday I posted this on the Type A Group website and it got a great response. In case you missed it, I thought I'd publish it here today.

One of these days your phone is going to ring. Your boss is going to
want to see you in his office. He will say, "What is the biggest
opportunity for growth we are currently missing?"

You
are going to mumble and fumble. He'll say, "It's people over 50

Let The Fools Believe

I had a conversation with a few advertising friends the other night.

One of them was facing a situation I had seen before. She was about to make a new business presentation. The client was expecting that the presentation would include a considerable amount of social media.

The agency knew that the social media component was of little value and was substantially window dressing. It was there

The Web Is Not Medicine

"One has seen grand theories rise, only to be toppled by stubborn facts." Oliver Sacks
When advertising's overfed suits and black t-shirts and Jimmy Choo shoes reach consensus, it's a pretty good bet that what they've agreed on will turn out to be very wrong.

One of the unchallenged truths that advertising's chattering class has advanced these days is that "the consumer is in charge." This

Social Media Gets An Ass-Whooping From Google, Email

Over four years ago, in a post entitled Looking For Volunteers, I wrote the following...

"TAC predicts that when the frenzy over Facebook, Twitter, and other
social media calms down and the dust clears, email and search will
continue to be the dreariest and most productive forms of online
advertising."

In an article on Monday entitled "Email Is Crushing Twitter, Facebook for Selling Stuff

Spirit of Lost Angels Finalist in EFestival of Words Awards

Very pleased to see that Spirit of Lost Angels is a finalist in two categories of the EFestival of Words Awards: Best Historical Fiction and Best Novel. If you have read the book and enjoyed it, I would really appreciate your vote! Thanks a lot To vote, go to the EFestival of Words site and register (it's free). Then go to the Awards Hall area, and just scroll down to Best Historical Fiction and Best Novel categories. And you can vote in both categories.
Thanks again!
Cheers,
Liza

Do Advertisers Know What They're Buying?

On April 23 of this year, Apple reported...

“We are pleased to report record March quarter revenue thanks to continued strong performance of iPhone and iPad,”
This report was remarkable for two reasons: First, it is generally believed that Apple has not introduced any new products or features of major interest to consumers in about two years. This in an industry whose oxygen is new products

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