| Welcome to Advertising in the year 2000. This year
marks the end of a century that saw the advent of two powerful media (television, and the
Internet). A century that showed us the power of big ideas in getting a politician elected
(the Margaret Thatcher campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi), and the power of negative ads
in discrediting a candidate (the Bush anti-Dukakis campaign). Because many ad techniques
and conventions have been around with us for so long, (animated commercials, pay-off lines
and positioning theory, for instance) we tend to forget how old the profession really is.
Indeed much of what is considered modern advertising (for Kodak since 1888, Singer since
1892, and Coca-Cola since 1898) predates motion pictures, Soviet communism, the
cathode-ray tube and offset lithography. We are, arguably, the oldest profession (outside
of prostitution, of course, though our critics would say there are very few differences)
with an incredible capacity to re-engineer ourselves. The practice of advertising
commission has been around for 132 years. The position of Account Executive was created
approximately 120 years ago. The copy department is exactly 100 years, and the use of sex
appeal in ads has been around since 1911. We have our idiosyncrasies and
passions. Our business thrives on being controversial and paranoid, far-fetched and
far-sighted, intuitive and grandiose. But how we’ve changed. We love fads and are the
culprits that create trends, but we can also laugh at ourselves, adapt fast, and upshift
in a heartbeat. We’ll swear by the creative concept, but when we discover its
upgrade, we wonder why we didn’t think of it before.
When ‘one-size
fits all’ gave way to ‘segmentation’ first, and ‘mass
customization’ thereafter, we became its willing accomplice. Halfway through the
century, image was everything. Before the nineties even got halfway, we frowned on that
mantra. The one-sight one-sound commercial with a heart-rending commercial gave way to
in-your-face montages with jagged supers. The advertising world experienced a shock to the
system when the warm, fuzzy "I like to buy the world a Coke" TV commercial on a
mountain top (by McCan Erickson) gave way to fragmented "Always Coca-Cola" spots
with digital polar bears and hypnotists (by a CAA, a Hollywood talent agency). The era of
the lean-mean agency arrived. As our markets changed we refurbished our vocabulary and our
skill-sets accordingly. Who remembers USP, the three sacred words coined by Rosser Reeves?
The Ogilvy gem, ‘Brand Personality’, quickly replaced it. A quick succession of
cachets like Big Idea, Positioning, Strategic Planning, Paradigm shift and Relationship
Marketing serve as markers for the pace of change. And we did not even mention technology.
Consider too, the
media landscape that is opening creative possibilities. Aside from the roller-coaster ride
that is the Internet, we can expect less hyped technologies such as pagers, mobile phones,
vending machines and credit cards to all become media in their own right. How do you
create an ad campaign that will have ‘air-time’ on a phone’s LCD panel no
larger that 4-inches square? Will it be the PR department or the new media department that
designs content for low-cost hand-held devices that can be put into the hands of teachers
to promote banking, or flight stewards to create interest in life insurance? With the
advent of wireless modems, suppose we could target a convention center full of executives
who use those palm-type organizers (the ones already doubling up as MP3 players and
cell-phones)? What if a low-frequency FM radio signal could be used to target small
communities such as a housing complex, a university campus, or small villages?
The capacity for
marketing communication to become more intimate with customers will bring new ethical,
cultural and political implications. The eternal question of whether advertising is
friendly and informative, or intrusive and manipulative has never been settled. But on the
other hand, what would the world be like without brands such as Intel, Volkswagen, DHL,
McDonald’s, Marlboro, IBM and Sony that were both friendly AND intrusive? Imagine
marketing without the daring, farsighted people who gave shape to the Coca-Cola
‘hobble skirt’ bottle, the Pizza Hut red roof, or the many ‘flavours’
of the Apple iMac? On the local scene, brands like Sunlite, Eveready, Elephant House,
Baurs, Bata, Sirasa, and yes, even House of Fashion mean something because of someone
going out on a limb, someone rethinking the strategy, someone designing a label or logo
that connected with the customer.
As the
century rolls over, the power of ideas will be called upon to breathe new life into these
brands as the dot-coms arrive intending to dethrone them. The ad agencies --or whatever
they will call themselves --have their work cut out for them.
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