Give me something I can actually use!

Lately, when I am watching TV, I've found myself more and more distracted during the advertising. I either fast forward because I've DVR'ed it, or I surf online while the ads are on. I get frustrated with the ads entirely and I've noticed that ads that give something more to me, advertisers who give something more to me, get much more of my attention and subconscious appreciation. Seth Godin wrote about this in his blog as well. Providing people with real tangible value, and doing it prior to them becoming a customer - that is, in my opinion, how to hook them. Those that don't provide that value, and just try to disrupt at this point it is noise to me. Like Charlie Brown's teacher -- I don't hear it.

Websites are great for providing something more to a potential customer but I don't see alot of TV ads that really make me feel like they're giving me something more. The Hyundai ads come to mind; they're more than just an obnoxious car advertisement; they actually seem to care about me as a potential car buyer. If I were to lose my job, they'd help me out. Those ads have gotten alot of attention in the advertising world and rightly so; but it's interesting how there's been very little copying of that concept/model. I'm talking outside of the auto industry. Businesses need to continue to communicate their value to customers but if you're value is always the same time and time again, it might be time to shake it up a little and identify additional customer value propositions that are outside of your comfort zone. If you really want me as a customer, you need to give me more than what everyone else in your business gives to me.

Because TV advertising is such a passive medium, it's hard to create an engaging ad that provides additional value to a customer and gets them to actually do something with it. You can educate them/make them smarter but most of the time the engagement will need to come in other ways; online, mobile widgets, twitter activation, etc. The great thing about Twitter or Facebook is that it is relatively new in comparison to traditional media so it's naturally more disruptive and attention grabbing. But it also helps brands and businesses take their customer relationships much further. Does it matter that TV advertising doesn't do that? Maybe not, but I hardly pay attention to ads anymore which makes me wonder how relevant they are and how relevant they will be if they don't give people more than just background noise.

Shaking Up the Advertising Agency World

I pulled the presentation below because it is consistent with the point of view I have shared before. Business and advertising/marketing more specifically need to pay close attention to the newspaper industry in order to make sure they don't follow that same path. Be willing to change and innovate the way you do business. Spend the time necessary to strategize what will distinguish your business and identify what your customers really want. That's the main message I get from this presentation. In advertising, customers are finding many ways to avoid traditional ads -- they're tired of being talked at; tired of being talked down to; tired hearing about things that are completely unrelated to them. Imagine a day when your entire world is customized, messages and information are targeted and customized specifically for you.

This presentation is from David Armano's blog: Logic + Emotion.

The Future of Advertising. WTF?

View more presentations from David Armano.

More on cloudsourcing

I just read John Winsor's blog post "Will Agencies Suffer Death by 1,000 Cuts Through Crowdsourcing" . To begin with, on a complete aside - I am thankful to Twitter because I wouldn't have even known about John's blog without it.

I was incredibly excited to read his blog because it's driving to exactly what I'm envisioning the future to be. As he says, "The only question is, will agencies wake up from our own delusions or will they suffer the same fate as their print media brethren?"

Once people get over the emotion involved in such a radical change, particularly creative people, I believe they'll be driven by the fact that they can develop much more creative solutions to business problems.

Here's an example -- imagine if there were no more agencies and instead there were free agents. Centers of excellence in their space - creative design, marketing strategy, copywriting, user experience, etc. Imagine if those folks were able to pick and choose the team they wanted to put together based on the specific assignment. Those folks could form and re-form depending on the assignment and the client. They could actually pick their assignments and get more control and leverage over the client because they decide what they want to work on. I think there's potential for this to work in many different businesses and industries; not just marketing & advertising.

The next logical step forward from there is to pull more intelligence from technology - remove the guess work around what the strategy ought to be, what customers will want, and what customers will think looks good. Is it possible (yes it is) for computers to put exactly what customers will want to see without any human advertising/marketing professional involvement? Blasphemy you say? But, I'm just asking the question -- is it possible?