Why people don’t give a damn about ads

In the chase for impressions, we fail to create meaningful relations with people.

The internet has been around for 20 years, yet most advertising campaigns still look the same. The formats have developed and evolved but underneath the technological framework is the same old approach: Deliver a message, from a brand, to an audience.

In the meantime, the internet has completely changed how people behave in almost every aspect of life. Before, consumption of content was limited to a few formats in dedicated timeframes or schedules. Today, content is available in our pockets 24/7. Furthermore, so is the ability to complete tasks, work, or pay bills etc. Yet most ads, still, are designed for a non-existing group of people who sit, bored to death, waiting for campaigns and brands to find them.

Today, advertising competes with culture and entertainment on equal terms. It has to match not only “traditional” media outlets, but also Youtube channels, streamed music, podcasts, your friends’ status updates, parties, festivals and silly GIFs in quality to compete for attention.

The new media landscape requires a radical new approach. Instead of believing they can force a messages upon people, marketers need to offer solutions and content that are genuinely interesting or useful.

No amount of paid media is going to turn bad creative into good content. — Gary Vaynerchuck

Before, money could buy a receptive target audience in a predefined format, but this is becoming increasingly less effective as consumer’s attentions are diluted and technological developments hinder delivery of certain formats. To be effective today, we need to understand peoples’ needs; entertain and intrigue them, inform them, solve their problems, help them or reward and recognise them.

Currently, many simply refer to people as targets we can point and shoot at, with catchy messages that will inject their brains like some advertising infused psychedelic bullet. The truth is, the modern human being will continue to dodge this bullet whilst watching the next episode of OA on Netflix.

Relevance will conquer. Sooner than later. — Anders Emil Møller

No one, not for a second, mistakes your ad for something worth their time if you didn’t consider their needs during the making of it. However, if we start by discussing how we can be relevant in the lives of real people, we might have a chance at success … So what’s holding us back?

One problem is the way many measure effectiveness. We work in a world where everyone is interested in showing the best results. The advertising agencies want their campaigns to look like a success, the media companies want their media strategies to look like they are generating a lot of attention. The marketing directors want good numbers to show their boss and so on. The problem is, it’s easy to find, or create, numbers that can make any campaign look like a success.

60% of clicks on mobile banner ads are mistakes. — Mobile Marketing Daily

A competent agency can set targets to match expectations from media buys. We know, more or less, how many people will click a banner ad or a Facebook post, but because everyone wants to show they have succeeded, irrespective of whether they actually did, many often overlook whether these clicks actually come from people who care about the content, delivered value or enhanced the brand.

We rarely measure how many of the clicks happened by mistake or how many people are genuinely engaged in the product or the content. Instead we often refer to engagement as if it’s something that can be measured in a click or a like. But when was the last time you had an engaging conversation with someone that lasted for less than 5 seconds?

Being noticed is not the same as being remarkable. Running down the street naked will get you noticed, but it won’t accomplish much. It’s easy to pull off a stunt, but not useful. — Seth Godin

What we should do instead, is track how our content (physical or digital) makes people feel. Does it make them happy, does it make them laugh? Did we help them solve a problem in their lives? Did we actually make them think for more than five seconds? Did they tell their friends? Have they got a stronger relationship to the brand? These are the questions we should ask.

And if we do, we will start to create meaningful relations with people instead of short term attention stunts.

If you like this story, please share it with your network, ‘recommend’ it and feel free to comment if you have any thought on this subject. We would love to hear from you.

Revolt is strategic and creative agency for the digital age. We reshape the connection between brands and consumers.