Advertising (As We Know It) is Over
Just like a typical member of the Millennial generation, I don't have cable TV anymore. A happy side effect of cutting the cord is that I rarely get exposed to TV commercials. While I was visiting my parents for Mother's Day last month, though, I got a taste for what ads are like these days. And they felt different to me.
In almost every ad, I didn't hear companies talking about their products and how much better they would make our lives. Instead, I heard companies talking about their admiration for health care workers who were on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. I saw companies making pledges to address food insecurity or a litany of other issues brought on by the corona virus. Almost every commercial was about a cause bigger than that particular brand or product. It was about what these brands were doing to be of service to their customers, employees, and communities during this difficult time.
This was not the advertising that I was accustomed to seeing on TV. It occurred to me, as I thought about this shift in the tone and topic of advertising in recent months, that advertising and marketing has fundamentally changed. We are not going back to "traditional" advertising methods. Advertising, as we know it, is over. And every company will need to adjust to the new reality and communicate with potential customers in different ways.
Advertising Never Served Customers, Anyway
The thing is, old school advertising was never all that great in the first place. I don't think anybody who's been exposed to advertising over the past twenty-to-thirty years would say that ads have made a positive impact in their lives.
Sure, once a year during the Super Bowl, some companies pony up tens of millions of dollars for a 30-second spot and spend the equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster to produce funny or entertaining ads, but even many of those are hit or miss.
TV, radio, and internet advertising has long been an annoyance, a disturbance from what we actually want to watch or listen to. Sure, it helps to prop up the business model of many entertainment companies, and it keeps film, sports, and television relatively inexpensive for consumers, but most people prefer to mute or skip ads with their DVR.
In Marketing Rebellion, a recent book by Mark Schaeffer, we learn about how the history of advertising contains a long list of lies and secrecy between companies and their customers. Schaeffer explains that “nearly 80 percent of consumers don’t trust corporate advertising in any form, and the percentage is even higher for younger consumers.”
We don’t like ads, we don’t trust ads, and most of the time they don’t even effect our buying decisions when we see them. Why do you think subscription entertainment services such as Netflix and Spotify are so successful at converting paid customers to their premium services? Because the premium offerings have ZERO ADS. We literally will pay companies more if they agree to spare us the ads.
The Times, They Are a Changin'
To be fair, ads did not start changing during the global pandemic. Cord-cutting has been accelerating for years, and not just within my cohort of consumers. Attention that once was glued to TV screens is now glued to the internet on platforms primarily owned by two companies: Facebook and Google. Perhaps it's fair to say that traditional advertising isn't dead, it's just moved to new platforms called YouTube and Instagram. Much of the advertising that used to be done on radio stations throughout the U.S. is now shifting into the red-hot podcasting industry. Don't worry folks, companies will find a way to try and get your attention.
However, the content of ads' messages are almost certainly changed forever. In 2020 alone, we have begun seeing companies use advertising to pledge their support for corona virus relief, salute doctors and nurses treating the virus, condemn systemic racism and white supremacy, and state why they believe that Black Lives Matter.
Consumers are trying to avoid advertising at all costs, but when they do hear from brands, what they want to hear is that this brand stands for something bigger. We want to see that brands are a net positive for society, and that they are making a contribution much more important than returning value to shareholders.
In this turbulent, difficult, uncomfortable year, advertising has become about what you stand for, not what your product is.
So, What Will Replace Advertising?
For the longest time, ads have consisted of brands talking at potential customers. Advertising was a one-way street. The fact is that brands don't have to do it this way anymore. They don't have to be annoying and interrupt us from consuming the content that we want to watch or listen to. Companies must replace talking at consumers by talking with consumers.
In Marketing Rebellion, Mark Schaeffer writes, “The most automated company isn’t going to win. The best technology isn’t going to win. The most carefully planned sales funnel isn’t going to win. The most human company will win.”
Companies and brands that act more human are in the best position to succeed in the post-advertising world. To put it a different way, the most human company will survive.
What does that look like? It means operating their businesses in a more humane way. It means community-building amongst customers. It means listening to customers rather than talking at customers. And it means being honest and trustworthy as a company.
As advertising continues to lose traction, direct communication between brands and customers on social media will grow. Brands will also compete in terms of how progressive and impactful they are on society. Brands that stick with annoying ads will lose market share and go out of business, and brands that entertain, inspire, and connect with their customers in a genuine way will survive and thrive.
Now is the perfect time to reconsider how to talk with consumers. I for one will not miss old school ads. Much better that we figure out a way to use those marketing resources to start tackling some of the biggest issues in society.