Big Disappointment in Adland
December 17, 2007 at 3:20 pm
This time last year, the Irish Marketing Journal published the thoughts of many senior advertising people in Ireland about their predictions for 2007. All of them – bar none – talked up Digital. That’s the catch-all term applied to web, mobile, and other online activity by people who work in agencies.
When I read this, I got quite excited. I thought that this year might mark a new direction for Irish brands online. But no, it was not to be. Apart from the Powerade “Never Give Up” campaign from McCann Erickson, there really wasn’t anything inspiring coming out of Irish agencies that rocked my world. I liked the Powerade campaign because it was smart, integrating a blog with tv ads, outdoor, and banner ads, plus it used real life people – a key trend for 07.
Maybe I’ve overlooked something massive, but my conclusion is that 2007 marked another year where adland refused to take a big leap forward and not regard digital as just another medium like television and radio.
- Digital is worthy of more than just 5-10% of budget
- It delivers a fully trackable return on investment and reaches parts where television and newspaper can no longer reach
- It’s significantly cheaper to produce and can be tweaked mid-campaign
- It simply cannot be ignored
In the UK, the much lauded statistic about online advertising spend overtaking traditional happened at the start of this year. In the USA, I learned a lot about the opportunities for inspired advertising at the Future of Advertising conference. In particular Carla Hendra, the Head of Ogilvy, shared some excellent insights on what works online. The takeaway from her speech? You just don’t pitch for business these days without including a digital component.
In Ireland in many respects, we are ahead of the game (and here I’m thinking mobile) but when it comes to advertising, we are in the dark ages. Advertising and PR agencies are afraid to invest in the talent that could elevate them to the class of agency that ‘does digital’ and does it well. And until they do, the talents of their creative departments will continue to be limited to 20th century mediums only.
Comments (one response)
Well said Maryrose! Having worked in an ad agency here in Australia in the not too distant past, it seems to me that adland doesn’t know how to adapt to digital. Their internal structures, methods of charging, not to mention some of the dinosaurs running these places mitigate against a successful migration to the new digital world. It’s all too hard.
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