Advertising: Who Cares? Who Wouldn’t?

29 August 2024

Advertising reflects society, it doesn’t drive it, which would go some way to explaining why the industry today is so divisive. Everything is black or white, you’re for me or against me. You love or you hate. Compromise is for wimps. Discussion wastes time, debate is the enemy of progress.

In April, Nick Manning and I had one of our regular two-old-guys-in-a-coffee-shop-moaning-about-the-state-of-the-ad-industry sessions. This one was a little different – for two reasons.

First, we joined the dots. Maybe it took us longer than it should, but it finally struck us that one reason for the overall poor quality of creative output these days is because advertisers’ focus, directed there it must be said by those who should know better, is more on the numbers reached than on the message delivered.

And secondly, we decided to try to do something about it. To be fair we were a bit like a couple of cartoon characters: thumping the table (metaphorically you understand) and shouting ‘something must be done’ (rather quietly so as not to upset the good citizens of Putney) without having much idea what exactly.

We settled on a blog – there’s revolutionary for you – and in that original post wrote: “We intend putting on an event whose shape and scale will be driven by the interest we generate. Maybe we’ll need a conference venue, maybe a large table, maybe a small desk.”

We laid out our manifesto, and decided on five key topics. In a nutshell:

• Business models (nobody thinks the current model, largely unchanged since the 1970’s, works)
• Trading, transparency and trust (trust in advertising is in short supply, shining a light on how the industry works can only be a good thing)
• Measurement and accountability (metrics that mean little and are often wilfully misinterpreted need to be replaced by meaningful, validated data)
• Recruitment and well-being (starting salaries in agencies are virtually the same as they were 20 years ago; and there’s less satisfaction, and enjoyment to act as a counter-balance. A career in advertising isn’t the attraction it once was)
• Brands and journalism (shouldn’t we consider the societal benefits of original, professionally produced content when deciding where to spend budgets?)

The aim is for a group of like-minded people to discuss and debate, and to emerge with pragmatic, forward-thinking, positive ideas on how best to move the industry ahead.

I find it hard to think of a single reason why anyone would have any problem with any of this.

Do we really think that the current business models work? Not if you listen to the moans around the industry on how we’re not appreciated, not properly rewarded.

Is spending someone else’s money without explaining exactly why we’re suggesting whatever we’re suggesting, and the benefits, professional?

Are we happy with the obsession with numbers that have little connection to business effect; and the lack of a full debate on what to do about it?

Is it acceptable that today’s graduates simply don’t consider advertising to be an attractive, enjoyable profession?

And shouldn’t we at least consider the consequences of breaking the ties between ad spend and original content creation?

The old virtuous circle – do great work, attract more clients, grow the business by doing great work for those clients, has been replaced by a linear model driven not by admen but by money men. Identify an opportunity, invest, grow, cut costs, sell.

It’s said of social media that you, as the user are not the customer but the resource. In today’s ad world the client, whose business we’re there to grow is it seems no longer central.

The Advertising: Who Cares? movement has attracted 340 individuals who’ve volunteered to help re-centre the industry. There are some interesting things about this group.

First, they are individuals who care. They’re not corporate shills, no-one is being told to do this.

In fact, just the opposite; a fair few wish to remain anonymous. Many of them work for large advertising businesses. We are delighted to have their support and to protect their identities.

Isn’t it strange that the largest advertising businesses on the planet are not actively supporting an attempt to make advertising as an industry work better?

Not only that, but some have created a culture within which free-thinking individuals working for them feel they have to go undercover to support this initiative.

The same is true of the platforms (although I do sort-of get why; they’ve done extremely well on the back of what might politely be termed a lack of buyers’ curiosity).

It’s also true of some (‘The Media Leader’ is an honourable exception) of our trade press and, weirdly the ad agency trade body (which disappoints me as an IPA Fellow).

What drives Nick and me is a desire to do what we can to make the ad industry a better place. One that attracts the best people so that they can bring their skills to bear on clients’ businesses.

We – and those many people and organisations helping us in one way or another are doing this for free. If we do make anything we’ll donate the balance to NABS. If we don’t cover our direct costs, well, so be it.

Our launch event in September has attracted attendees from all over, including the US, Australia, Europe, Scandinavia, China and New Zealand. With two weeks to go we have 9 tickets left.

We’re sure initiatives will emerge but just what they’ll be we won’t prejudge.

We hope the largest players will join us.