Advertise on TV or… try hard

Advertise on TV or… try hard

Recently, the news about Iwo Zaniewski and Kot Przybora leaving PZL has shocked the industry. The discussion about why advertisements are becoming worse has started again. And once again the responsibility for boredom falls on advertisers – they are blamed for being afraid to take risk and copying their projects safely. The effect is “ad mush” which is flooding homes, cars, streets, smartphones…

Wait, what smartphones? The television is, min you, still the advertisers’ favorite medium. And that’s good – it’s a place for the owners of mass-produced articles, which have already found their place on the shelves and which protect their status. Here, even the “boring” TV spots give a satisfactory payback.

The new media (including smartphones) is still a chance, primarily for new advertisers who don’t fear because they don’t have a choice. Those, who bravely enter the new media and new consumer market because, at the beginning of the battle over consumers’ attention, they normally don’t have funds for TV ads. And that’s why creative ideas matter here.

All the time advertisements of poor quality widely flood the exhausted minds of viewers, who won’t go out on the streets because of that. What’s more, they will even sometimes buy something that they unconsciously recall.

And advertisers spend money – sometimes it will work, more and more often it won’t. What should they do when the market is changing, consolidating and marketers striving for results “here and now” don’t have time to even think what to change, how to make a better use of investments in advertising. Also there is a constant pressure from the central office and the corporation. They look at the results not the artistic value… And this should be understood and accepted too. And it is also a good thing because in many categories the barrier of finding a place in the conscious attention of our target group is now different that it was some time ago. What is necessary is motivation, willingness, bravery and, more and more often, a business model which allows reaching those who spend more time using smartphones, tablets and YouTube than watching “Dancing with the Stars”. The things look even worse – you have to product that will defend itself in social media, on forums and Facebook…

And who should do all this if there are budget cuts everywhere? You have to be exceptionally brave and determined to do it ell – to risk, to try, to question the things that are expected to work as they were able to years ago. But they don’t work anymore! Or it works in a different manner. The media, it’s such a complicated issue…

It is easy to be ironic, complain and laugh at the situation when you represent an agency on the market. It’s much worse, if you work for a corporation and you have to sign the decision for which you are responsible and you risk losing your position. And there is family, loans, sushi… And the market is not as open as it used to be a few years ago and looking for a new job isn’t an easy task. Besides, if the risk pays back, it will be hardly noticed. If it doesn’t work, everybody will.

What is the right source of motivation? Who should make you braver? The more there is of the brave and determined (or, maybe, desperate?), the better it is for advertising. What am I saying? The better it is for the world and our heads, extremely tired because of the huge amounts of ads. And the changes will continue, not because we will be bracer but there will be no other way. Slower or faster, everybody will face the new reality.

There is a lot of responsibility put on the advertising industry. It is connected with, among others, the clients’ awareness about consequences if they take the risk. What they should expect from the new media and how we should assess campaign results. Only then can they make conscious decisions and only then, having a completely clear situation, they ill consciously take the risk and buy the next 1000 GRP on TV expecting that it will eventually work…