Like the legendary DJ Deadmau5, our anonymous advertiser Adnonamau5 (pronounced ad-nonymous) puts on the mask, drops by the Rockstar CMO penthouse and tells us how it really is. This month he returns with a fairly blunt perspective on the pointlessness of much of the ad creation process.
Apparently and according to Yankelovich, Inc. the average person in the western world is exposed to 5000 ads per day. Of course, that is across all channels…social, OOH, TV etc. and also via products you use, people wear and so on…but still…5000.
That was a 2017 number mind you, now it is estimated at being up to 10,000!!! Now you may be saying to yourself right now – that’s impossible and way too high, so let’s say it is and let’s reduce it to 500 a day…that is still 500 different companies vying for your attention per day, or put another way 499 to 9999 competitors all trying to get in the head of potential prospects and customers encouraging them to hand over their hard earned to them.
So why am I prattling on about this…well because I am in the ad world and therefore have a particular perspective on the generation of ads. I am often involved in conversations about a brief response, an idea, or some creative conceptual work, and am consistently amazed by the battle I walk in to… there is always a war raging…David v Goliath…Wellington v Napoleon…Darth Vadar v Obi Wan Kenobi…it goes back and forth for weeks.
I walk in to… there is always a war raging…David v Goliath…Wellington v Napoleon…Darth Vadar v Obi Wan Kenobi…it goes back and forth for weeks.
Each person or party wrangles and postures arm wrestles and argues over a word or a picture…” it’s not the right message”, “the imagery is too bland”, “we need a punchier line”…the stress on the faces of those involved and the time spent incredible and in my opinion unhealthy.
It then moves into production where weeks and months are spent acquiring the images, the video the talent and even more time putting it all together. Finally, the client engages (most who wouldn’t know a great ad if it slept next to them), they don’t like the positioning, the color, the words, so more time reshooting, repositioning, etc. and finally after many many months, the ad is finally ready to go live. Only for it then to disappear amongst the mass of other ads we see a day!
What was the point? What an incredibly bad use of time…seriously all that for a 5 sec precursor ad to some Youtube video your friend sent you of some guy getting buggered by a drunk kangaroo, or that ad that gets in the way of your nervous thumbs need to scroll the page, and such beautifully crafted work watched (by probably very few) on a 5 inch screen whilst navigating the commute.
Doesn’t that seem pointless?
It does to me…if it was up to me…with the world as full of ‘creatives’ as it is now…Facebook, Instagram, Pintrest etc. why not use more user-generated content, just choreographed to tell your brand’s story…it’s proven to be more watched, memorized and believable.
But then, what the fuck do I know.
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