Beating the dead horse of advertising

You  skip over the ads in magazines.

You likely skip the ads in newspapers.  More than likely you don’t even read the actual newspaper anymore.

You use a DVR or Tivo to fast forward through annoying TV commercials.

You ignore online banner ads.

You hate pop-under ads.

You’re bombarded with ads all day long, each and every day.  Some marketers claim you receive 3,000 ad impressions a day, or more.  No matter what, you see a lot.

Some businesses are built on advertising.  Network TV wouldn’t exist without ads.  Newspapers live on ads (or used to).  Google makes the vast majority of its revenue from ads.

Why do most companies first cut advertising and marketing when the economy dips?

Why?  Because traditional advertising is on a long, plodding decline toward obsolescence.

Consumer controlled advertising–social marketing, digital marketing and word of mouth–and experiential marketing where consumers have a memorable experience with a brand, product or service–is the next stage.  That’s so obvious, you’re thinking to yourself.  But, to most companies, brands and marketers themselves, it’s not so obvious.

While companies race to monetize social media, they still hold fast to traditional advertising–print, TV, radio.  It worked for 100 years or so, a complete industry was built on it and around it, and consumers generally accepted it.  But now this massive recession is revealing the expanding cracks in that system.

Newspapers are failing.  Magazines are failing.  Network TV viewership is skewing older and shrinking.  Media consumption is quickly fragmenting, moving to online media, consumer produced media, video games, and hundreds of cable TV channels.

Running an ad on NBC or in Newsweek doesn’t reach the entire country anymore.  Fewer and fewer people even see that ad, much less remember it or act on it.

Consumers react better to word of mouth advertising, whether it’s the old fashioned conversation between friends or online through product reviews and other social media sources. Why?  Because consumers trust each other.  They don’t trust faceless corporations.

We’ve just started down the slope.  More major brands, business, newspapers, magazines and organizations that were built on traditional advertising will disappear.

Brands and corporations will need to find their own solution to valued consumer engagement in social media.  There isn’t a single winning approach for every brand, product or service.  It’s not that easy.

The impending problem is that as more companies dive into social media with a traditional advertising mindset they’re very likely to repulse consumers again in a new medium.

The companies that get it right will win.

The companies that give consumers a reason to tell their friends about their product or service will win.

The companies that build a valued and engaging relationship with their consumers will win.

Marketing that is surprising and valued will win.