Online Advertising: How Software is the New Darrin Stephens
Great
piece in the Saturday Washington Post on the ongoing upheaval in advertising markets. The article touches on why the 30-second spot is imperiled, why the Cannes ad festival is irrelevant, and how software has become the new Darrin Stephens.
But parts are starting to fall off of the decades-old [advertising] industry machine.
Consumers are spending more time online and less watching network television. When they do watch, more viewers have the ability to use TiVo to bypass ads. Consumers demand more from their advertising -- they want product information, consumer reviews and purchase options, not just a glib message pitched by a celebrity. And they want information tailored for them, not a mass audience.
"I don't have children, so I don't need to see [ads] for diapers," said Darin Brown, chief strategy officer for Avenue A/Razorfish, owned by digital ad company aQuantive. "I get that the diaper is going to be effective, and the ad entertained me, but it's not going to cause me to buy because it's not relevant to my situation."
... "I believe that search[-based] and other online advertising is taking away from the off-line [or traditional] budgets of marketers, and one reason is it's more accountable," said Karl Siebrecht, president of Atlas Enterprise Solutions, which aQuantive also owns. "You can send your message out there and understand if people click on it downstream, and if they click, do they purchase? If you're selling Toyotas, you can see if they asked for a specific dealer location."
In other words, the art of advertising is turning into the science of advertising. Agencies now need math guys.
"Agencies now need math guys". That line strikes you, doesn't it?
1
