What’s turning Aussie marketers soft?
The nanny state, creative castration and procurement are making Australian marketing more dull and conservative, argues Richard Woods.
Fifteen years ago, when I first entered the world of marketing, I was bedazzled by the creative genius and ballsy campaigns that our advertising and marketing leaders put on TV, in press and on pack. But something’s changed… more conservative, more vanilla campaigns are slipping through the net and it’s rare to see an idea made from blood, sweat and beers these days.
But why? What’s changed?
Woods
I’d add another factor.
One man’s “bold” is another man’s obnoxious.
An often understanded (for the obvious reasons) problem facing marketing and brands themselves is consumer disengagement from advertising. The kids have picked up ad-blocker on their browsers and it’s harder to get to their disposable income becuase of this – and now they are helping install it on their parent’s browsers too – and teaching them how to watch their TV shows online without those pesky ads/advertorials and “integrated campaigns”.
Being risk averse is a concern, but its an irrational reponse to the fact that conusmers are harder to reach – which is a direct response to marketing that crossed the line from bold/rique to obnoxious.
Couldn’t agree more.
Returning from a European role in 2012, it was clear that Australian marketers on both the client and agency sides are terrified of big companies not liking their ideas – particularly those in FMCG.
It’s the lack of ideas, excitement and confidence that is killing Australian retail… and marketing for that matter.
You hit the nail on the head (or is that too violent a metaphor these days?).
I think another problem along with all this is the number of wannabe screenwriters and film makers who seem to be creating ‘pretty’ and ‘filmic’ commercials for their film school reels.
No proposition, no product story, no brand presence, no cause for viewer involvement. And these chuckleheads seem to be supported by no-hopers on the client side who have no idea either.
On occasions when I’ve been a bit lax hitting the mute button I see (not actively look at) stuff for which I can’t picture the meeting at which the ‘concept’ was approved.
So let me get this straight, you think the Australian advertising industry is going soft because you can’t do whatever you want any more; because the society in which you operate has set limits and standards around what they are willing to put up with; because the clients are expecting a return on their investment; and something irrelevant about where you can have a cigarette?
Well since you put it that way, you have my unending sympathy, and I sincerely hope that Australia becomes more like England in the 1980’s as soon as possible. Maggie T for PM!
I agree with Ingmar, too many times have I watched a TVC and really struggled to imagine what the meeting must have been like where the client said “that’s perfect, it’s exactly the creative resposne we need…”
Whats soft is complaining about how hard things are these days and they are not what they used to be.
Man Up – in marketing there are always challenges and barriers, either work out away to work with them and overcome them or move on.
Richard
I agree but would like to contribute to your list of contributing circumstances that has made marketing , particularly in business services, which wasn’t exciting to start with, completely lame and effectively useless
Remember the days when this saying was common and got a laugh. “i know half of my marketing budget works I just don’t know which half.”
Now as a result of cheap edm marketing and very clever(SiC) digital marketing teams the saying is now ” I know which 2 % of my marketing is working so im going to focus exclusively on that!
The result of all this focus on measurable results in marketing and “being at the executive table” to be able to demonstrate the effect of your marketing investment is that the bean counters have won. They now have the data that says only 2 % of your marketing budget has clear and measurable sales outcomes. So what do you think the marketing budgets look like now. About 2 % of what they were and only on EDMs. All of the creative brilliance has been drained from B to B marketing.
Be careful what you wish for!
@ Fraser – I am simply pointing out that times are tougher to get a genius idea to market. Therefore we now have the opportunity to overcome those challenges and to deliver big, smart, industry evolving campaigns to market (more so than we did before)! So let’s get on with it and grow some balls!…. And I took your advice to ‘Man Up’… I had four cans of Solo, three Four n’ Twenty’s and a six pack of VB and am ready to take on the world!
Soooo agree with your comments and its refreshing to hear that creatives understand the challenges for marketers to do something big, different – only to be hamstrung by all the components you mention. After recently working with an amazing bunch of creatives that had developed a great idea that had all winning elements – it was so sad to see the nucleus of the great idea broken down – piece by vanilla flavoured piece -by the 79 decision makers, over zealous procurement team and condensed time frames. This only breeds mediocrity in the long run- and what a shame…
The reason there is little creativity in mainstream marketing is because of all the Monopolies and Oligopolies in Australia. In almost every industry there are just a couple of big players who know that as long as they continue using to their dominance wisely, and don’t rock the boat too much, their success is almost guaranteed. Why would Coles ever risk doing something a bit controversial? Those clients that fearlessly challenge the obstacles are few and far between in Australia and underfunded too.
In London you are very much focused on the consumer and what they want because there is lots of real competition. In my experience it’s much more about focusing on the client here and that client is usually happy just to keep things ticking along. It’s nothing to do with a nanny state. I’ve worked in counties where there is a lot less nannying than Australia and it doesn’t make them everyone more creative.
The most creative things happening in Australia are all about breaking the Monopolies. Uber, Airbnb and ideas like Hackathons and Open Sourcing are where the creativity lies, not coming up with a cleaver brand campaign to sell as new shampoo. If you want more creativity in you life go and work for the underdogs and those companies who are trying to shake things up, not just preserve the Status Quo. [get it “Status Quo!”}
Great observation – like any good merchant navy ploughing the seas, we need a couple of pirates to work outside the system. Make your own treasure on a $2000 camera and PC, get it out there through social media shares, get the numbers that even blind marketers can’t deny and only work for the few small/mid sized companies with a single decision maker with balls who wants to kick the big boys from behind. A great simple idea can be executed with a tiny team – lokk at http://youtu.be/nnsSUqgkDwU for inspiration.
I’d go along with all of that and am doing my bit to make a difference.