We’ve Come Undone

Despite everything we know about what it takes to connect with audiences, we are stuck on the surface with low-cost, low-value engagement, and meaningless (or even fraudulent) metrics. Even with all of our experiments, tools, and tactics, we remain largely transactional.

Our industry is breaking down. The implications go far beyond our ability to sell more stuff.

Before we can fix it, however, we have to be honest about where the problem lies. It is not disruption, technology, or digital. It is not the fractured media landscape, increased user choice, or those unmanageable Millennials. It is not the mysterious forces of change, market volatility, or tight budgets.

It is us.

When faced with a choice between the present and the future, most of us choose the present. This is not to say there is a shortage of imagination. We’re experimenting. We’re embracing new channels, new content types, and new technologies. Yet we keep cramming the new into old models. It is a failure of nerve, not imagination. We choose low-value transactions. We choose the short money. And this, more than any outside force, will be our undoing.

We are all guilty–media companies, agencies, and brands. One symptom: We are still hoping advertising will somehow save us. According to a recent report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), marketers spent a record $17.6 billion on digital in the third quarter of 2016, a 20% year-over-over increase from 2015. The same report shows marketers spent $50.3 billion in display, social, video, and search advertising in three quarters, compared with the $59.6 billion spent in all of 2015. And, according to eMarketer, U.S. companies spend more than $22 billion a year on programmatic ads.

The numbers may rise, but they cannot fix the issues. Media companies still struggle mightily with declining revenue, agencies remain unclear on their place in the value chain, and brands are rightly skeptical about what they are getting for their money.

The real problem? Despite everything we know about what it takes to connect with audiences, we are stuck on the surface with low-cost, low-value engagement, and meaningless (or even fraudulent) metrics. Even with all of our experiments, tools, and tactics, we remain largely transactional.

Ironically, the biggest technical innovations–platforms such as Google and Facebook, programmatic ads and exchanges, and even marketing technology–all continue to reinforce old models. With each transaction, we push our industry closer to losing what remains of our credibility with consumers and with one another.

The ramifications of letting our industry continue to slip away go beyond simply keeping our jobs, selling more, and growing our businesses. Our industry provides the infrastructure that keep the public informed, both about consumer choice and about the larger world. Our industry supports the kind of transparency that makes markets and democracies work.

What are we to do in the face of crushing short-term revenue pressure?

First, be mindful that optimizing for the short term is a band-aid, not a strategy. It’s easy to confuse the two. It’s easy to think that the money is more sustainable than it really is. Intellectually, we know better. We know that what we are pouring money into is actually undermining our long-term position with our audiences.

These are, of course, very tough calls. We need the money to stay alive long enough to evolve. Still, we must let some of what’s in front of us go so that we can invest our time and energy in better models. We need to muster the nerve to say no to what does not serve our clients, our audiences, or our industry well–regardless of whether there’s a market for it.

More broadly, we must redefine our purpose. Our industry has the skills and potential to serve a greater good, to ensure that we have an informed and engaged public. When we fail, the repercussions can be dramatic. But to truly serve, we need to preserve what we are squandering with those low-value transactions: trust.

Search for consistency and credibility. Find it in what we can be. The insight will be our guide to our future.

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