Crisis will not kill off advertising

Jul 16 2009 By Lewis Harrison, The Journal

IT MUST be depressing being an ad man in the 21st Century. Rarely a day passes without being told your industry is going to die pretty soon.

But is advertising, its arteries supposedly clogged beyond salvation by the arrival of the internet and now social media, really on the verge of a fatal cardiac arrest?

The symptoms are all there, say the docs. Consumers don’t trust ads. They don’t like them or need them. According to one of these metaphorical physicians, Prof Eric Clemons of Pennsylvania University, the internet "shatters all forms of advertising".

Here’s the thing, though. The facts don’t really back up this damning prognosis.

It’s oft been said that the rising popularity of DVRs would lead to less and less TV ads being watched as viewers skipped them. Yet, according to a report by Nielsen Media Research, that isn’t the case.

Statistics on UK DVR viewing are hard to come by, but the report said in the US fewer than 3% of total ads are being skipped using the recorders, while TV viewing has risen by more than double that amount (7%) since 2000.

Even more interesting is that, according to the same independent report, TV viewing figures are extremely high in the UK – and at record levels in the US.

The case for continuing to advertise on TV isn’t looking too shabby, then, but what of online advertising? Despite the dreadful state of the economy, a report out last week from ZenithOptimedia predicted online ad spend would rise by 10.1% this year to £35.2bn and £39bn in 2010. It’s just a prediction, but a remarkable one nonetheless.

Here’s another newsflash for all those gathering round advertising’s deathbed. Ads have never been trusted by consumers. They have never been liked by them. They have never been needed by them. However they have always been effective at doing what they are supposed to do, to sell stuff.

Cadbury’s "gorilla" campaign led to a 9% increase in revenues during its first run. The recent T-Mobile "flash mob" campaign led to record footfall, and the online video has had 13 million views since January. There are countless other examples.

Only a fool would suggest the industry will continue on, unchanged.

But this crisis does not spell the end of the industry. The strongest methods will survive, the weakest will fade away, and new ones will appear. Advertising isn’t dead. Advertising is evolving.

Lewis Harrison is communications manager at Codeworks