The Weakness in Advertising

I love creating advertising. Many of us do. Unfortunately, most consumers abhor conventional ads — and like them less and less each year. 

To state the obvious, consumer attention spans have declined dramatically — from 60 seconds to 30 seconds to 15 seconds to 6 seconds to 3 seconds to nanoseconds. Facebook stats tell us that consumers don’t want to listen to us: 85% of videos are viewed without sound. Instagram’s one billion users indicate that consumers prefer not to read what we write. And the prevalence of ad blocking technology and delayed viewing confirms consumer resistance to advertising. 

Yet advertising isn’t only weak because of consumer resistance to it; it’s weak because of what the industry has done to itself. 

The advertising ecosystem is horribly inefficient — and some of it is corrupt. The issues of viewability and transparency have not been appropriately addressed. Agency holding companies are too big to care about mid-sized clients. Many consulting-led agencies are unnecessarily arrogant and expensive. And almost every agency has too many people, billing too many labor hours, that add too little value.

We live in a post-advertising world that most agencies are still not built for — a world riddled with unending disruption. The best business solutions are usually not new ads; they’re at minimum part of a much broader strategy: the invention of a new product… the birth of a new brand… the creation of a unique go-to-market strategy… the application of new technology, etc.

Can agencies provide appropriate value in this new world? While most don’t; some can. We believe in smaller teams… that work with fewer clients… and partner with senior-level decision makers. We believe in working quickly, across channels, with a real strategic underpinning of our clients’ circumstances to minimize the need for time-wasting meetings and paperwork. We believe in combined business strategists and creative people who conceive, implement and do.

During Advertising Week, we say that Advertising is Weak but feel strongly that there are good solutions to help clients win.

Lawrence M. Kimmel is CEO of Rung-UP. He can be reached at Hi@Rung-UP.com.