Ad industry has lost sense of purpose and focus on creativity says AMV founder Peter Mead
The ad industry has lost its sense of purpose and identity and needs to start believing in the business of advertising again, founder of UK ad agency AMV BBDO Peter Mead has said.
Speaking at today’s Secrets of Agency Excellence conference in Sydney, Mead emphasised the need for the industry to refocus on the importance of relationship building.
“They have lost their sense of purpose and their sense of identity – are we in the targeting business, are we in the creative business?” the Omnicom Europe chairman said.
“These are themes that have littered my long life in advertising. Every so often our business becomes introspective and loses the one central thing that we are here to create – great ideas that ultimately sell products.
“If we hang onto that central thought – which distances ourselves from clients, they can’t do it – we won’t lose our way. If we hang onto that and be passionate about it the world will turn in our direction.”
“The first secret is to start believing in our business again,” Mead said. “The secret is concentrating on the the creation of the best work you can. Find great creative people, support them to the hilt and make sure everyone in your company understands these are the geese that lay the golden eggs.”
Mead said the issue of procurement cutting budgets comes down to the industry failing to build better relationships with procurement teams.
“I wonder if we’re becoming a bit obsessed by procurement and we haven’t developed the relationships with procurement people we should have in order to convince them of the value of a great idea,” he said.
Mead also expressed concern around the digital revolution, claiming the new focus on big data as a danger to creativity.
“I’ve been a bit of a sceptic of the all conquering digital revolution,” he said.
“One of of the people at the very top of our profession recently said the medium has become more important then the message – if that’s true we may as well all go home.
“I question whether we’ve gone too far in isolating our prime audience. We’ve become brilliant at targeting but maybe we should understand we’re in the business of persuading as well.
“There’s no point in getting to someone unless you can persuade them to do something.”
Mead continued by saying the industry is “in danger of confusing activity with progress”.
Referencing the quote “creativity is one of the last legal ways of gaining advantage over our competition” he said: “The great thing about creativity is machines can’t do it. Big data can’t do it. Sophisticated algorithms can’t do it. It’s still the magic only the human mind can supply.”
He added: “I don’t want our profession to finish up as mankind did in the Terminator films with the machines taking over.”
Mead emphasised the need to keep the “magic” around the business of advertising.
“You keep the magic of the process going,” he said. “We shouldn’t give away the magic of what we do too easily. All too often we give away the magic of what we do.
“We’re like bloody shopkeepers – we say to clients which one of these do you fancy? At Abbott Mead Vickers we only ever presented one idea.”
Miranda Ward
I just got told by the marketing manager of a potential advertiser “my sales team are not selling enough so we can’t advertise”
Work out the logic in THAT?
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The day we started loading ‘story telling, content creation,UX, likes, viral, conversation, brand engagement,’ into the advertising function we were screwed.
Advertising must sell. Period.
Metrics of such peripheral activities or fancy case studies for awards mean nada to CFOs who hold the real power in client organisations.
If we lose sight of what really matters to the client, we deserve what we get.
or don’t get.
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“. . . the one central thing that we are here to create – great ideas that ultimately sell products.”
Amen.
“The great thing about creativity is machines can’t do it. Big data can’t do it. Sophisticated algorithms can’t do it. It’s still the magic only the human mind can supply.”
Amen again.
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If I look at many SME’s, who offer great value or experiences, they did previously need to advertise, (pre online customer reviews), now they might not need to.
Large, sluggish, corporates are feeling the pinch as smaller, more versatile businesses offer better services, value and experiences. These companies need to advertise. Will there come a time when they get their houses in order so well that they do not..? Who knows?
Blanket, mult million dollar traditional campaigns (scattergun / it used to work), might not work in this fragmented environment.
Creative in 2016 is an advert that pops up and is an immediate solution to my consumer needs right?
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I hate to say, whilst I desperately want to agree with him, it just sounds like ‘it was better in my day’.
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The problem is; Machines don’t listen, just like the last commentator.
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Ah another in the long line of people saying the industry has lost its way and we need to get back to what we used to do etc etc
Sorry, but no. You’re wrong and incredibly out of touch. The business has moved on and what you once did is simply less relevant today. There are better more effective ways and that’s called progress!
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If a great piece of creative falls in a forest and non-one hears it, is it a great piece of creative?
That’s where data and algorithms come into play. They give each piece of creative their best chance (cet. par.) of being seen or heard by the largest number of people in the target audience.
And that is the way of the world these days.
Having said that, media placement cannot make a bad ad good, but if it is stuffed up it can make a good ad bad!
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..I think that’s the point he’s making – that we’ve lost sight of the need to make the creative good, rather than just stick it in the right place.
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Are these “better more effective ways” ad tech?
Good luck with that…
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Agreed Yes but.
But doesn’t that seem to infer that the analytical side of the business has progressed in leaps and bounds and is more than holding up its side of the equation but is all too often being let down by sub-par creative?
So if that is the case why not say that and maybe just pay an iota of credit to the analytical side of the business. Probably words too hard to mouth because we all know the mantra that research kills good advertising (and before you ask – yes bad research can and does).
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Could you please explain how “the analytical side of the business has progressed in leaps and bounds”?
It’s exactly the point that this focus on analytics by clients has resulted in lower quality, less effective advertising that is universally loathed.
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“Ad industry has lost sense of purpose and focus on creativity” self-interested rubbish, it’s about selling a product not art, get off your high horse.
Creatives are just poor sales reps, and in Australia poor ones at that.
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I want to agree but can’t. The creative idea was always about getting attention and creating desire in mass media channels but today’s digital targeting makes that tactic much less necessary.
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