If you’ve sat through a long-ish TV ad break recently, you’ll probably agree that the vast majority of modern advertising is pretty forgettable.
From disappointing creative to a notable lack of humour, Contagious’ Phoebe O’Connell uncovers what top-level execs really think about the state of advertising today…
“Between tropey car commercials, dreary insurance ads and bog-standard telco marketing, only a few crème-de-la-crème campaigns rise to the top each year – and even they are lucky if they make an impact beyond the industry.
That seems to be the consensus, at least, among the 100 C-suite level marketers who took part in the Contagious Radar survey at the start of the year. In a slightly gloomy indictment of the advertising industry, the majority (79%) of survey respondents blasted the current output as ‘totally average’. An even more critical 11.7% described it as ‘crap’.
Alongside the poll, a group of industry leaders revealed their priorities and predictions for the year ahead – including whether or not the ad industry had lost its touch.
Creatively bankrupt, middle-of-the-road ads make up the bulk of the industry’s output, says PJ Pereira, co-founder and creative chairman of agency Pereira O’Dell. He refers to it as: “Kardashian advertising. It’s just noise and there’s not a lot of substance and message behind it.”
Pereira also pointed to the lack of entertainment and fun, blaming it partially on marketers’ preoccupation with purpose. The two are not mutually exclusive, he insists.
“It’s hard to be funny and purposeful at the same time… But when life is heavy, humour really helps.”
Despite this, 87% of survey respondents agreed that there are fewer funny ads today than ever before.
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Show me the funny
In difficult times – economic downturn, cost-of-living crises, political and social polarity – giving people something to laugh about is a valuable service, says WPP’s global CCO Rob Reilly.
“It seems like the world is so wound up at the moment. I think [humour] is the thing we need more and more, and I’m hoping brands will push us towards comedy or fun or entertainment.”
Being funny is a smart business strategy too, says Omnicom CSO Alex Hesz: “Humour is deeply memorable. Humour is a powerful driver of emotion. We must not be embarrassed about being funny.”
So, where has the industry’s sense of humour gone? And what’s causing this dearth of creativity?Shrinking budgets, a hyper-competitive market with weakened demand and the sinister shadow of consultancies circling your clients might have a thing or two to do with it, of course.
“Without a high degree of scrutiny, professionalism, and financial and intellectual rigour, agencies don’t stand a chance,” warns Hesz. “The consultants are coming for our lunch.”
The creative (risky) opportunity
But as Patricia Corsi, chief marketing, digital and information officer for Bayer Consumer Health, points out, constraints can present marketers with huge opportunity.
“This is where creativity plays an immense role,” she says. “I see business people getting hooked on the return on investment, but the creativity that goes into that media money makes a massive difference.”
Another hurdle identified was the challenge of attracting, developing and retaining talent, especially with regard to building more diverse companies and teams.
“We continue as an industry to miss really valuable perspectives that enable us to make genuinely better, smarter, more effective decisions on behalf of the businesses we serve,” says OMD CEO Chrissie Hanson.
Despite countless calls to improve diversity and representation in marketing and advertising, a fifth of the survey respondents said their companies hadn’t been able to make it a priority yet.
But even if you manage to overcome those hurdles and are delivering above-average, imaginative – even brave – ideas, one conservative client can bring it all crashing down. Of the marketers polled who work at agencies, 70% disagreed with the statement: ‘My clients always prioritise creativity’. A whopping 90% said that they have to convince their clients to take creative risks.
Bang average advertising
To summarise – the work is bang average, consultancies are enticing away clients and those pesky clients and their stakeholders keep putting the kibosh on all the great ideas. It’s not the rosiest picture.
So it was surprising that, despite this sense of cynicism about the standard of advertising, respondents’ outlook on marketing was paradoxically positive. A reassuring 85.7% said they feel proud to work in the industry, while 72.7% said they feel ‘optimistic’ about the state of advertising and marketing in 2023.
That optimism is the most encouraging finding of all. Sure, the advertising industry is currently experiencing some tough setbacks, but all is not lost and creativity still has the chance to prevail.
