Is creative advertising dead?

What happens when a desired product or service which has been giving consistent results suddenly come at 1/5th its price, everything else remaining the same?

You have the world and its aunt trying to get onto the gravy-train (or shall we say the Mumbai suburban trains given the crowds try to reach their destinations??) where after a time the consumer is super-bombarded by advertisements whether it makes sense or not or whether the poor soul being bombarded wants to see them or not. Yes, the digital world, the internet and some seriously innovative services from the likes of Google has made practically every second soul around a seller and an obvious advertiser. So, every opportunity at whatever time of the day (or night!) or whatever be the person’s state of mind (he might have lost a dear one, met with an accident or has the spouse dumping them!) is good enough to bombard him with whatever the seller wants to sell.

And this is not exactly someone’s thoughts. It IS happening. Any gadget you switch on or any newspaper you open, the first sight you get to see with unerring certainty are ADVERTISEMENTS, ADVERTISEMENTS….and then some more! It has come to the point where you fear browsing the net or opening the newspaper as the ads therein overwhelm you. The content you look for gets completely side-lined how-much-so-ever important it may be in the race to make money, get eyeballs and some more recognition. Death, despair, dejection on one side and on the other and in direct contrast, the need for recognition and some more sales- the scenario in marketing across mediums.

Agreed it’s about money honey, but is there or is there not limits to one’s need to sell? In times to come, desperation to get the numbers and survive shall only seem to push people to give bigger, flashier and more in-your-face advertisement.

And where does all this take the quality of advertising? Not seriously high. Look carefully and the only good, though provoking, worth remembering advertisements come from a select mind-set belonging to select organizations. They could be big advertising companies or even start-up but the relevant thing is their sheer numbers are rather small when compared to the overall number of advertisements being dished out. Of these, quite a few have a legacy of quality behind them. As for the rest, the lesser said the better!

Where does this bombarding and apparent death of advertising take the reader/ browser/ visitor? From what-ever is heard of in the media, be it traditional or digital, we find some discernible trends, like

• A gradual shut down of one’s senses. What do you do when you encounter sounds louder than your ears can handle? Your suck in your breath and hold your nose to go temporarily deaf. And if that does not seem to suffice, you cover your ears with your hands or a muffler. Or you listen to something else. In short, you switch off. Bombarding by advertisers will result in the same. You shall shut out the noise and pick-up what-ever is relevant. In the digital world, you either tweak your browser or make software to cut out the nuisance. BUT, and more so in the digital world, the ad men seem mad men who find all kinds of ways to come right back- with a bang. Suffice to say, this shall end up being a constant fight between the loud-mouth and the one acting deaf!
• A gradual realization that quality is what matters and one’s efforts towards this end. Till a few years back email inboxes were bombarded with stuff the world started to call spam. With people reacting adversely, browsers like Google, Firefox etc put filters in place resulting in a drastic reduction in their numbers and intensity. Digital media with its instant results & action could still keep a semblance of sanity in advertising. The real test is with the traditional print media, radio and outdoors where bombarding still takes place. Here too control can be found in myriad forms including active censorship by bodies both, government and industry supported to keep out the blasé and keep in the classy. The other rather inadvertent way in which control is to be found in the traditional advertising medium is that of rising costs. With campaigns failing regularly to get the desired results, pants have been pulled down and socks pulled up. No more the blasé and in numbers seems to be the motto. Everyone thus wants stuff which is short, sharp and sure!

In the end, it may seem that advertising is indeed dead. But in reality it is far from it. Its form is changing and so too its objective. Its numbers may seem to be going down compared to a while back. But then these are sure signs of disruptions caused when corrections take place. So, take heart. Things are a changing. And for the same, the old and the un-necessary do need to die!