Advertisers need to create more value for customers by making ‘less annoying’ ads
Nicholas Gruen
Producing ads that are “less annoying” is key to the marketing industry delivering real value for the client, according to a leading academic.
Nicholas Gruen, CEO of Lateral Economics, believes marketers must become smarter at utilising behavioural economics to create ads that play on angles other than just selling a message.
Speaking today at the Marketing Science Ideas Xchange (MSiX) conference in Sydney, he said: “The industry needs to produce ads that are less annoying. Can ads add value to the buyer, as well as the seller? If we can get that, we are getting closer to utopia.”
Gruen gave the example of women’s fashion magazines, which often display aspirational products without a sales ‘hook’.
He concluded the ads formed “part of the entertainment”, and was even part of why people buy the magazine.
He said Google had begun giving customers the option to close ads, and then ask them to select a reason why they didn’t want to see the content.
“Google is on that journey of women’s mags,” he said.
“They are trying to find a way to create ads that will add value while doing their job as ads.”
Kevin Bradford
Laugh my socks off. Ads are annoying that’s the point. It’s called interruption marketing; the soft spruik of native content is not washing here. Oh and the value of an Ad is the product or service they are selling. Are we really that out of touch?
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Really stone the crows? making ads annoying is the whole point of advertising?
seems you are that out of touch
annoying ads are why people spend their every waking second trying to avoid ads.. ultimately killing the industry. get with he programme people and realise you don’t have any RIGHTS to people eyeballs. you have to EARN it by being entertaining.
do you HAVE a TV?
The arrogance of 80’s ad thinking!
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No shit Sherlock
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@ Nose Knows
To the left hand side of the Mumbrella homepage, you’ll notice a big green Woolworths logo accompanying a story about where it went “wrong” for them. One of the key reasons is the success of Coles, due in no small part to the “annoying” advertising put out by Big Red.
I know the hip ad folk on here would all like to think that such campaigns don’t work, but the fact of the matter is, they do.
So, I’ll take arrogant 80’s ad thinking over some over-intellectualised bull#%$t about ads “adding value to the buyer as well as the seller”.
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Really Nose Knows, if you think web litter and pretending to be advertorial is the future, you are sadly deluded. If you think micro campaigns on facebook are killing it you are again sadly wrong. The world’s biggest brands interrupt us wth ads, yes on TV. And yes, even you are right here: ADS can entertain. But did you know they can make you cry, laugh, or even angry.
The arrogance of 2,000 digital thinking!
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There’s a difference between annoying and disruptive. People don’t buy from annoying brands. A disruptive ad is more likely to cut through.
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@ KGB
Coles work because they’re all about being super cheap. It makes sense to have cheap and cheesy ads. If you want to add value to a brand however, which most brands presumably do, you better take a more sophisticated approach.
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I just love the natty jumper under the jacket look…
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A whisper is louder than a shout
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stone the crows do you work in creative and create the annoying ads? if you think annoying is the way to get customers in the store, that’s everything that is wrong with this industry at the moment.
KGB take some of your own medicine and look to the left hand side and read the article about the ING ad….
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@ keyboard warrior
The article I reference on Mumbrella is based on the corporate results of two of Australia’s largest corporations.
You are pointing to an opinion piece, written by a freelance copywriter, based on nothing more than a personal view. Just like the endless commentary on why Coles’ marketing is so terrible.
You appear to be yet another member of the advertising community who is happy to present your opinion as fact, while wilfully ignoring genuine metrics.
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And the bigger picture is…
The best brands are building themselves into listed multi-million dollar companies at a rate of knots, WITHOUT recourse to advertising.
They’re doing it by investing in product, platforms and the customer experience. This is how brands are being built today.
Advertising is a sales game born out of the paper and TV media age. It’s all about a company spruiking their wares in front of as many captives as possible.
But times have changed: consumers are waaaaay more informed, the customer journey is multi-levelled, and the way we connect with — and create value for — customers has changed.
If I was a business owner (I’m not), the last thing on my mind right now would be the question of creating a more annoying or less annoying ad. It would be how I improve my product, platform and customer experience.
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Proof our industry is so damaged if these are the minds behind it.
stick to creating annoying work boys. Ill be over here creating stuff people actually want to watch.
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great banter lads.
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Whenever I tune to 2GB to hear what nonsense they’ re up to, I usually hear a maddening ad for a window blind company. I hit the mute button immediately and miss the ensuing ads as well.
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