Starting from scratch
The economic architecture of advertising, and in fact all marketing, has not fundamentally changed for 50 years.
The internet has a track record of disintermediating all types of agencies to create new ones; from new record labels connecting artists directly with listeners, to new retailers connecting designers with buyers, to new matchmakers connecting entrepreneurs with investors.
However there is one massive industry, marketing, that has not changed at all.
We still have the same design and graphic driven advertising we’ve had for decades in newspapers, and television. Only now it’s on technology steroids; user profiling, behaviour tracking, retargetting, cross-site tracking, with more interruption than ever before. Check out this transparent page takeover on the iPad. Nice (that’s British sarcasm by the way).
The thing is, technology is just being used to help us wring out maximum efficiency and productivity from an existing system. At some point, the returns will diminish, you could hypothesise that they already are.
So how do we change this? What would a new architecture of advertising look like?
I propose we need to start from scratch. At a high level, here is how;
We need to build from the ground up. Like so many other industries, we need to disintermediate and shift the roles of the middlemen. The efficiencies to be gained come from being more open and transparent, removing the financial and relationship arbitrage that most middlemen play (think researchers, agencies, planners and buyers).
We need to connect in new ways. Connecting the people who have needs with the marketers who have services and products. The internet affords an always on, two way communication and feedback mechanism. We are just learning how to use it, to listen not talk.
We need to structure new incentives. As a marketer I have very little incentive to stop putting ads in front of people, I’ll deliver as much as they can tolerate. As a person, I have very little incentive to experience the ad - I’ll go an make a cup of tea or use an ad blocker (the equivalent of ad skipping on a DVR). New incentives are about creating meaning for one another, not trading off revenue against anger.
So, this is why I’m here.
To find others who want to join me to rebuild marketing from scratch.
