September 2013

Can Online Advertising Survive?

One of the enduring lessons of economics is that things look rosiest just before they explode.

This happened in the tech industry in the late 90's. Prices, valuations, and interest in the dotcom economy had been soaring for years and had reached astronomical levels. And then, in the course of a few short weeks, reality suddenly reared its ugly head and it all came crashing down.

The online

LOCATION, LOCUTION

Many thanks to my Triskele Books colleague, JJ Marsh, for her interview in The Displaced Nation, on bringing location to life in fiction writing.

Where Do The Myths Come From?

The advertising and marketing industries have some very ingrained and persistent myths.

Having been in the industry for 40 years, I've heard some of these myths but I've never seen data to support them or found out where they come from.

One of the common and pervasive legends is that older people want to be like young people. The result of this is advertising that is obsessed with showing us

Cranky Old Guy Finds Happiness

If you're a regular reader, you've probably noticed that there is very little of an autobiographical nature that appears in this blog.

There are two reasons for this. First, I prefer writing about advertising to writing about myself. And second, I believe you prefer reading about advertising than reading about me.

Once in a while, however, I write something autobiographical and today is one of

Online Ad Criminals

On June 17th, we published a piece called The $7.5 Billion Ad Swindle. It was about the massive fraud that is being perpetrated on advertisers by criminality within the online advertising industry.

A new report by Solve Media indicates that the fraud is growing at an alarming rate. According to an Adweek piece last week, in just 3 months the size of the fraud has jumped to about $9.5 billion

An Industry Of Umpires

In baseball, the players play the game and the umpires'
make sure there is a smooth and decorous process.

The fans come to see the
talent of the players. When umpires impose themselves
disproportionately on the flow of the game they are roundly booed.

The best umpires are the ones who are virtually invisible. The worst umpires are the ones who think the game is about them.

A very strange

Ad Exec Says He Didn't Know Anything

CHICAGO -- Advertising executive Fenton Schmetz admitted today that all during his successful 18-year advertising career he didn't know anything.

Schmetz, who most recently held the position of Chief Irritation Officer at Compucom, a worldwide, international, global, intercontinental agency said in an interview, "I really don't know anything about advertising or marketing or people or business.

Is It Art Or Science?

We're going to get a little philosophical here today my friends, so hold on tight.

The question before us is, is advertising an art or a science? This may seem to have no relevance to you if you're busy on your 8th version of a deck about Big Save's giant Halloween sale. But bear with me, I think it will be interesting.

There are aspects of advertising that are artistic and aspects that are

Open Letter To Harvard

"Thank you for sharing your idea with HBR.org. Due to the volume of
submissions we receive, we are not able to respond personally to each
inquiry. Please know that if we are interested in publishing your work,
we will contact you directly.

The HBR Web Editors"
Dear HBR Web Editors,

Thank you so much for your email.

Before I sent in my submission to the Harvard Business Review, I read on

Media Buyers Are Ruining Everything

The fun part of being a contrarian is coming up with crackpot theories. And I've got a doozie for you today (by the way, how do you spell doozie?)

(Also, by the way, get ready for a lot of "by the ways" and parentheses today.)

I think that a substantial part of what makes our culture such a toxic cesspool can be laid at the feet of agency media buyers. Yup, all this rot is their fault.

You