advertising

Is This The End of Advertising As We Know It?

I recently picked up a book called ‘The End of Advertising’ by Andrew Essex. The end! This title alone was the biggest reason I decided to grab it off the shelf. And while I’m only about half way through the book, it’s a fascinating look at the state of advertising and marketing in our current business climate.

The author made some great points about how society as a whole right now, hates being advertised to and that we need to change the way we look at building business through advertising and promoting our brands in the market.

It’s not so much that there are so many bad ads out there, it doesn’t take a 200 page book to tell you that. It’s the fact that we are in sensory overload and do not wish to be interrupted while we consume our media of choice.

Weird right? I agree with this, while being in the advertising and marketing industry.

And that’s the point…We REALLY need to change how we do things if it’s come to the point where people that sell ads, hate being advertised to…

advertising

This quote really struck me.

It’s something I completely agree with and a big chunk of the message in the first half of his book. We need to concern ourselves with being more value driven rather than trying to pick up a sale or two.

Look there is nothing wrong with buying and selling. It’s part of the human experience and we’ve been trading for thousands of years. It’s how we get our message and products across that matters, and not by pissing off our potential customers.

I love the value driven method. And why I love content marketing so much.

My ‘brand’ contains the websites and services I own. The more useful content and value I give my readers and subscribers, the more they will poke around and see what else I offer.

This isn’t mass marketing. It’s not mass advertising to everyone on the planet…It’s finding the right people by created excellent (and hopefully useful) content that people enjoy. They aren’t being interrupted when they read the blog or watch my videos…And I hope I’m interesting enough to keep their attention for 7 minutes 🙂

Is this the future?

Who knows, because apparently people are saying content marketing is dying too.

I don’t have the answers…but I know this for sure, adapt or die!

And with adapting, I’m going to make sure I’m doing my best to add value to people through my content. My advertising is through what I do daily by example…And I think, it’s a pretty good game plan even if Madison Avenue disappears for good….


7 thoughts to “Is This The End of Advertising As We Know It?”

  1. Thanks Jon, Sounds like and interesting book. I am always impressed with the amount and variety of content you put out there.

    There are certainly lots of examples out their in the mainstream that advertising is waning.

    Netflix is a great example. I pay a subscription and don’t have to watch commercials. On the other hand Youtube has gone commercial mad and it’s over kill.

    It’s an interesting world out there.

    Nick

    1. Thanks man, yeah completely agree. I will gladly pay for the ability to not have ads…Which kinda goes against my chosen profession lol Interesting days we live in…

  2. Thank you Jon.

    Interesting Read, as usual.
    Advertising will never die, just need better ads and ways
    to do it.
    I agree, there are lots of bad ads out there that should
    never be allowed.

    I have an important request: PLEASE CHANGE THE FONT COLOR TO BLACK.
    many [including self have trouble reading the grey color]
    Please think of all us elderly – but young at heart- readers you have here.

    Thank you in advance.

  3. Interesting post! Content marketing can be said a different way.. Native advertising! We can market content but have ads along side it and give people the option to take action on the ads later, after they have gained enough value!

    1. Bingo. Thats exactly what this book talked about too….Native ads. The value for me is critical. Always need to focus on that first!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.