From the digital confusion that beset so many ad agencies and marketers in the early ’00s sprang forth a veritable industry of prognostication and charlatanism seeking to profit from it.
“The :30 TV spot is dead!” was all the rage back in 06.
I recall being hectored in Ad Age by a digital “maven” for not “getting it”. The “it” in question was that consumers were now in charge. Oh, really. We’d had the temerity to mis-name (in her esteemed opinion) some very funny and very successful youtube videos for client OfficeMax.
Interestingly this digital maven had a website that looked like her maiden aunt designed it and her experience amounted to nothing more than creating a few online contests that nobody had ever heard of as well as telling people how wrong they were all the time.
And when they weren’t hectoring the people actually doing the real work of advertising, these digital gurus and ninjas could be seen huffing and puffing at conferences in fancy hotels. These conferences invariably had the words “future” and/or “Next” in the title.
The speakers talked of a utopian future (it was always the idyllic future, never the messy present)where products had marketing “baked in” and consumers had nothing better to do than have a “brand convo” about your brand across multiple platforms and it was all somehow free.
It seems so silly now. Actually it seemed so silly then too.
Which brings me to this lovely diagram I pinched from Vic at SELL! SELL!
Thankfully the day of the digital windbag seems to be at an end.
