Chris Tomlinson: Facebook is the advertising industry's new best friend
Can social media save the advertising industry?
I don’t want to appear unsympathetic to the current decline of the advertising industry, but I have no sympathy so maybe that’s how I come across.
The mistrust built up by ad men trying to brainwash us into thinking that naff products will change our lives has tarnished even the advertisements of those that actually can.
“Advertising is dead, long live social media” seems to be my current mantra and it’s not making me many friends (well not in advertising at least). Don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger.
Consumers migrating from traditional broadcast media to online is the root cause of the problem, but perhaps I could deliver the message with less schadenfreude.
Of course advertising is migrating online too. The problem is that for every £10 lost in offline ad sales only one is gained in online banner sales.
Great news for brands wanting their ad spend to go further, if indeed straight advertising works online. Bad news for traditional media owners, even if they have managed to migrate their publication to the web.
The bulk of online advertising spend currently goes to Google’, paid-search being the ultimate in highly targeted no-waste advertising, but offering little for those wanting to build brands, the traditional role of advertising.
Man’s new best friend, the iPhone, could present salvation for advertising.
Its impending new software release, with its ad-friendly features, could breathe new life into online advertising, given the trend to surf while on the move.
Strangely enough it is social media that presents the best opportunity for the future of advertising, despite consumers using social networking to gang up on errant corporations and ridicule their marketing messages.
For the right brands, the highly targeted world of Facebook is one of the better places to advertise, but only in support of more subtle social media marketing activity.
The message on Facebook banners needs to change from “click here to buy this” to “become our friend” and by implication benefit from a two-way relationship. In this social media world of sharing, the less we look like we are trying to sell stuff the better.
We need a new breed of ad men, who are acutely aware that advertising in the social media space can start conversations about their brands but not control consumers conclusions.
Ironically, if the web has scuppered the adverting industry, by morphing into a social media platform, it might get advertising afloat again.
* Chris Tomlinson is managing director of Friend Digital His blog can be found on www.frienddigital.com
