Nowadays people cannot go through the day without seeing more than two thousand messages. Advertising is inescapable, and inescapable most certainly means less effective!
That’s is an awful lot of clutter for a person to absorb however that is the reality of advertising to day!
Media fragmentation has given way to unique forms of advertising. Paid editorial models have contributed to the erosion of trust between reader and publication. This proliferation of alternative advertising is causing consumers to question the authenticity of advertisers motives.
Already it is being touted that advertising’s’ days are numbered. There are many tools in place for people to block out advertisements and in the absence
of real accountability how much longer in these increasingly pragmatic days, will Clients go on supporting an increasingly ineffectual, and inefficient, advertising industry?
And if there are no advertising budgets to support the creation of content there will be nothing for people to avoid!
Now-a-days with the out-of-control proliferation of choice and together with the development of technology allowing people to not watch advertisements perhaps the advertising model is being tested…and certainly found wanting!
We need to completely overhaul the way we communicate with our customers and dismiss the one-way ineffective form of advertising.
Meanwhile the use of the Internet as an advertising medium becomes more and more questionable. Recently Unilever had some advertisements refashioned using existing advertisements. Refashioned to highlight Unilever’s conflicting messages including the Axe (Lynx) slogan “Spray more. Get more the Axe effect” The edited video’s message is “Talk to your daughter before Unilever does.”
With regards to the highly praised (by the advertising industry that is) Dove campaign, the commercial success, according to the Times of London, is debatable. Whilst it was acknowledged was a brilliant idea, well-timed and executed there is uncertainty over the sales statistics!
Even as Unilever basked in praise for the real beauty campaign, it is profiting from degrading images of women elsewhere.
Sources claim that 2,500 letters have been sent to Unilever’s chief Patrick Cescau, demanding that he “axe” the Axe campaign.
Oddly enough Simon Clift, Unilever’s chief marketing officer says that the Axe commercial should be taken with a pinch of salt, “it’s a spoof that should be taken with a pinch of salt”. Oh well… there is a classic example of Top-down-Management, “Just do as I say” and “don’t bother me with your concerns”!
There exists to day proprietary applications that enable Clients to hold “conversations” with any target market and then analyse shoppers’ habits to determine how to achieve increases in sales, now and in the future.
The feedback creates a database, whereby you can segment your retail market on the basis of shopper behaviour.
The aim is to facilitate stronger relationships with your end user, using the power of “two-way conversations” with your customers.
This makes current advertising and marketing more responsive and more effective,through the application of this communication technique to classical marketing and advertising, making it more effective and more cost efficient.
Perhaps Unilever’s Simon Clift should take more notice of exactly what is available to him to avoid make these embarrassing mistakes again!