I found this great video from German Ad agency Scholz & Friends via twitter friend Gabriel Rossi. In the video they lay out a very accessible history of advertising with some lovely animation and music. What I do like at the end is the question they ask of their fictitious Brand X “Don’t you have something interesting to say”. It seems that after years of “crafting messages” to appeal to the faceless mass consumer market many brands have lost their ability to do or say anything interesting. Exceptions of course are companies that stand for things more meaningful than just promoting the consumption of their products. See my related post Is Advertising Worth Saving.
Scholz & Friends: “Dramatic shift in marketing reality” from Michael Reissinger on Vimeo.
On a related note I put a presentation together a year or so ago to present to some Industrial Design students on the topic of branding. I took a similar, historical approach calling it “A Brief History of Branding” which i’ve shared on SlideShare.
If you are interested in this kind of stuff you should follow me on Twitter where I share a lot of this sort of thing
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Extremely entertaining animation – I’ll pass that along and incorporate it into presentations myself! Also checked out your slide show. All good info.
I think the important thing that marketers are (or should be) realizing is that there are so many options available, it’s going to a lot harder to figure out how to reach customers. But the upside is, we have potentially much more effective ways to do that.
TV and coupons may always be the best way to sell toothpaste – or any low-priced commodity. Nobody needs to “participate” or “create value” for that stuff. However, any brand that occupies a narrow niche and/or requires a more sophisticated decision process for purchasing can and should engage with consumers in more targeted, multi-touch, (and perhaps most importantly) RAPID ways.
What this means for marketing firms (ad agencies, in particular) is that their job becomes less about the “big idea” Ogilvy touted in the ‘60s and more about a zillion small ideas that happen virtually on the fly – without pitching concepts and getting client approvals. Of course, this represents a radically different philosophy and operating structure for marketing firms, though less so for PR firms who generally have carte blanche to engage with bloggers, journalists, and occasionally customers, as necessary.
It’s a brave new world of transparency – and I, for one, am thrilled about it. I think many who traffic in hubris and hucksterism will eventually fall by the wayside. Those of us who are marketers because we are intensely interested in what drives people and want to nurture relationships will, I hope, thrive.
@CarriBugbee
The video is no longer available on Vimeo.. Anywhere else?
Great article. Thank you.
I think sellers are () Things important realize because it it is choose to so many that can offer, it so difficult that go get a thorough understanding how be reach more by user.
it so difficult that go get a thorough understanding how be reach more by user.