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Advertising Through Time |
 It’s January 16, 1972. Dallas is playing Miami in Super Bowl VI. You and your buddies are among the 56.6 million watching, and advertisers have coughed up $86,000 to entertain you for 30 seconds. Fast-forward 35 years to 2007, thanks to DVR. No, it’s not a time machine, just every advertiser’s arch nemesis allowing consumers to skip over the 30 second spot your agency slaved over and paid 2.6 million to place. In 1972, multitasking was cooking and hosting during the game. Now, 93 million viewers are engaging in multimedia convergence. Over the past 35 years, the advertising industry has dealt with the rise of new mediums and the challenge of pushing client messages through the ad clutter. Traditional media is no longer enough. To stay alive, agencies must branch out into utilization of viral ads, blogging, gaming and sponsorship. In the 70’s, Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy and Leo Burnett were leaders in what the industry called, “The Creative Revolution." We are now entering an age of consumer control. Consumers want products tailored specifically to them. Advertisers must assume the roles of parent, executive, teenager and so on. From now on, concepts will have to be forged in the fires of consumer relevancy. Maybe the Super Bowl of 20?? will be creepily specific to each household, with commercials targeted to the foods stocked in their pantries, the clothing on their backs, the mouthwash residue still lingering in their mouths and the very songs they are humming in their heads. If 35 years has done anything for the industry, it has reinforced the need to predict exactly what the consumer wants and give them just that. |
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