Maybe The US Can Ignore Antigua, But EU Is Another Story

Want To Get Into Advertising? Learn Some Math And Anthropology

from the changing-times dept

Thu, Jun 21st 2007 6:41am — Mike Masnick

Earlier this week, we discussed the pending demise of the 30-second TV commercial. There was an interesting comment in the original article that we didn't touch on, however. The reporter looks at how the advertising world is changing and states: "the art of advertising is turning into the science of advertising. Agencies now need math guys." Now, a Wired article about the future of the ad industry has a different suggestion, saying that the ad industry is in need of anthropologists who can better understand social networks and how viral ideas flow. Both are probably true -- and both show how far the advertising industry has to change. Obviously, there still needs to be a focus on creativity -- but rather than just throwing stuff out there to see what sticks, the next generation of advertising is going to involve a much better understanding of what happens to the message after it leaves the agency. While that might be tough on some traditional advertising types, it means there's actually a tremendous opportunity for folks to reinvent what advertising is, getting away from the tired old ideas of intrusive, annoying "pitches" into something that's much more compelling, interesting, useful and effective.

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16 Comments

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Jason Jenkins, 21 Jun 2007 @ 7:07am

free online video advertising
Also finding ways to reduce advertising costs will also play a major role in THE future OF ad planning and buying. Websites such as www.videogavel.com, will give any website a free pre roll web address video ad. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS REGISTER.

THX
JASON JENKINS
www.VIDEOGAVEL.COM
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jun 2007 @ 7:40am

Re: free online video advertising
Also finding ways to reduce advertising costs will also play a major role in THE future OF ad planning and buying. Websites such as www.videogavel.com, will give any website a free pre roll web address video ad. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS REGISTER.

THX
JASON JENKINS
www.VIDEOGAVEL.COM

When your master plan for ads involves hijacking blog threads, I have to question the effectiveness of your advertising abilities.

Just getting people to click your site doesn't mean it's generating revenue.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jun 2007 @ 7:41am

Re: Re: free online video advertising
PS: Please kill your web designer.
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Cowardly Anonymous, 21 Jun 2007 @ 7:58am

Re: Re: Re: free online video advertising
Maybe kill is a bit extreme, but some torture should be involved! Reminds me of the porno popups you used to get in the early days of search engines before that kind of stuff was filtered and blocked. yuk!
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Fred Flint, 21 Jun 2007 @ 8:12am

Godawful Web Programming
I doubt if JASON JENKINS (yelling loudly!!!!!) will ever return to Techdirt, now that he's delivered his crappy advertisement page to our eyes.

That's the worst web site I've seen in years. Keep up the lousy work, Mr. Shill.
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Another Coward, 21 Jun 2007 @ 8:26am

Re: Re: Re: Re: free online video advertising
I suggest the designer be stripped and forced to spend the weekend immersed in a leech-infested swamp.
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ehrichweiss, 21 Jun 2007 @ 8:35am

Re: Re: Re: free online video advertising
Seconded. I've taught 9 year olds to make better pages than that.
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Phillip, 21 Jun 2007 @ 8:38am

Welcome to the 90's
Advertising agencies have understood these realities for a very long time and many employ anthropologists (they call them account planners). The problem lies within the clients of the ad agencies being averse to change. Ad agencies are ready and many of them are well on their way to changing the game completely (see Weiden + Kennedy or Crispin Porter). Great thoughts too bad they're a little over a decade too late.
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slimcat (profile), 21 Jun 2007 @ 8:59am

ad creativity
With maths through differential equations and a bachelors degree in Anthropology, this would be right up my alley. Fortunately, I'm retired and I would rather body surf the Farallon Islands than be involved in advertising.

If I were a big ad honcho, I'd be looking for bright young people who are involved in social networking, regardless of their education. They would have the best insight into what is cool and acceptable within their group.

Just my two cents worth.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jun 2007 @ 9:07am

Times are a changin
It would seem that that technology is forcing several markets into a do or die situation. Music/movie distribution, advertising, even the porn industry is a little frightened of technology now that lots of porn can be found for free and now that recording technology has improved so much anyone with a video camera and net connection can be a porn star.

While that might be tough on some traditional advertising types, it means there's actually a tremendous opportunity for folks to reinvent what advertising is, getting away from the tired old ideas of intrusive, annoying "pitches" into something that's much more compelling, interesting, useful and effective.

While that might be tough on some traditional recording studio execs, it means there's actually a tremendous opportunity for folks to reinvent how content is distributed, getting away from the tired old ideas of restricted, lockdown media into something that's much more compelling, interesting, useful and effective.

I just had to.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jun 2007 @ 9:10am

Re: free online video advertising
After looking at that I feel like I just saw the video from The Ring and now only have seven days to live. Such horror.
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Michael Long, 21 Jun 2007 @ 9:10am

Worried
I, for one, will be worried once they start needing biochemists and genetic engineers...
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Petréa Mitchell, 21 Jun 2007 @ 9:49am

Not that big a change
This isn't as revolutionary an idea as you might think-- very large companies have been hiring anthropologists to help them with marketing for a while. It helps offline too.
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Norm, 21 Jun 2007 @ 11:18am

Re: Worried
Fast food that is chemically engineered to make you refinance your home!
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Another AC, 22 Jun 2007 @ 11:06am

Wrong path
Advertising is notoriously inefficient (I know half of my advertising dollars are wasted, I just don't know which half). Employing math and/or anthropology might increase the efficiency a little, but I'm pretty sure it won't be a dramatic increase. We need a better, probably completely different, way to bring buyers and sellers together. I don't really know what the answer is, but more of (approximately) the same probably isn't it.
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Anna Thompson, 7 Mar 2009 @ 10:59am

Re: ad creativity
are you hiring?!!! ;D
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