The ‘Death’ of Advertising: Reimagining a Media Mainstay

When the Internet became mainstream in the 1990s, many marveled at the endless possibilities that this new transformative technology brought to the billions of masses around the globe. Ever since then, marketing professionals have been predicting the inevitable demise of the advertising industry.

So does that mean traditional methods of advertising through TV and radio ads completely die away? Well, you could argue that to some extent this idea holds true. For the last decade, big ad agencies, such as WPP, IPG, and Publicis, have been struggling.  

The unfettered growth of data-centric behemoths in the modern digital ad world has been one of the main culprits. Nevertheless, traditional advertising seems to continue to hold on to dear life for one reason or the other. But first, what is it?

Let’s define traditional advertising

When most people discuss traditional advertising, they are referring to the format that it is packaged in rather than its content. In other words, it can refer to a medium in which ads are distributed to a potential audience.

Generally, TV and radio are considered the main traditional ad formats, while others include billboards, newspapers, magazines, direct mail and the cinema. The majority of traditional marketing sources are thus physical, and as the world orbits, demand for them is diminishing.

What’s causing the decline?

Like it or not, we’re now in the digital era and the majority of industries have experienced a technological transformation of some sort. As humanity continues to find ways to make life easier, we’ve been forced to adapt to these new technologies, despite initial protest.

Digital seems to be the way of the future and we may not have much of a choice. Not only that, business processes and models are continuously changing, with industry leaders coming up with novel ways of ensuring survival.

At one point in time, traditional advertising adequately served the needs of hundreds of businesses around the world. However, as change is an inevitable part of life, so are consumers' needs and expectations.

Modern consumers no longer want a one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to advertising as they have diverse needs that are more complex than ever. To be a successful advertiser, it all comes down to creating content that strikes the attention of your audience for the longest period.

The attention economy

Human attention is considered a scarce resource. In fact, the average attention span has dropped gradually over the last two decades. With so many options available to people, for almost anything you could think of, it's no surprise that this is the case. 

We’re constantly bombarded with tonnes of information through various audio, video and text channels. In addition, unlike the pre-internet age, your audience is now conditioned to constantly seek the next best thing.

The growth in mobile device usage since their introduction, and smartphones in particular, has meant that people have multiple options of how they can consume information. Through these digital channels, social networks have become extremely popular, leaving advertisers scrambling for users’ attention.

Time for an industry metamorphosis

Traditional advertising is now generally distrusted by millennials, so digital marketing channels are coming out as a clear winner to set the tone for the future of advertising. Digital is providing so many alternatives to traditional advertising, with new developments such as social commerce gaining momentum.

Furthermore, people generally dislike ads. The interruptive nature of most traditional advertising channels means that they can sometimes feel more like a nuisance. People’s attention on whatever activity they’re engaged in is interjected by an ad as if to say, “hey, stop what you’re doing and look at what I’m selling.”

Digital channels, on the other hand, use non-interruptive marketing techniques, which some refer to as pull marketing. These types of methods are user experience-focused, aiming to add value to the user rather than just try to make a sale.

Content marketing, SEO, and social media and influencer marketing are just a few of the digital tools that focus on your audience wherever they are without obstructing whatever activity they will be engaged in.

One major drawback to traditional marketing is that most of its content is temporary. Users cannot easily search its sources after publishing, whereas on the Internet, everything is quite permanent.

It’s also difficult to measure traditional marketing accurately as the content is primarily untargeted. Digital marketing is able to personalise communication, offering content that’s suited to a specific audience. However, not all hope is lost.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Even though traditional advertising has shrunk significantly over the years, it is all but dead. This is because each day, people continue to read newspapers and magazines, and watch TV. 

Also, digital channel ads can be easily blocked by investing in sophisticated ad-blockers as some advertisers have become more aggressive than before. Despite this, the number of people using them has declined. In addition, they cost advertisers millions in revenue. With traditional ads, this won’t be a challenge.

It seems that ad industry professionals will use a hybrid approach going into the future as traditional advertising will not really die out, as seen by the digitalisation of some agency giants. To survive, they have to adapt to new changes, ensuring their ads become effective again.

Advertisers need to start investing more in digital tools since there’s no escaping them. Besides, it’s been established that people respond much better to digital ads.

With the difficulties advertisers constantly have in effectively analysing campaign success of traditional ads, and shifting consumer preferences, it may be time for you to consider going digital. It may not necessarily be a full-on digital switch, but a hybrid, digital-leaning approach that keeps your business staying true to its identity while continuing to serve client needs.

If you are interested to find out how you or your company can adopt a hybrid approach to ensure the growth of your businesses.

Get in touch here to set up a meeting: [email protected]