Dave Allen. Director, Interactive Strategy

Advertising versus products

Let’s start here: Iain Tait leaves W+K to become ECD at Google Labs #, and then let’s consider a large, overly-speculative thought, not about why Iain left W+K as I have no idea only hunches, yet it means something for the world of advertising, but about an idea that’s been kicked around for a while – The End of Advertising.

Before you get too excited let me say that there’s nothing new there. That idea dates back to 2007 # and probably even earlier.

Perhaps today we might say that yes, we are now lurching towards the end of advertising, at least as we have known it. A realisation then, that battling the Internet platform (from an advertising POV) has been a useless endeavor and we now need to take a breather and face up to the fact. (That may sound hyperbolic but I’m standing by it.)

Here we are in 2012 and still the phrase ‘people and online advertising’ feels akin to oil and water to me. Not a cozy fit in other words. Yet one given, a truism if you like, is that people (whoever they may be) want products. That sort of closes the circle, right? Well, not really if advertising agencies keep using Internet/web/mobile platforms as if they’re Meta-TV’s, Meta-books and Meta-Newspapers..that mindset cannot last. It always seems to fall to tech companies to point this out. Last month Paul Adams, formerly of Google and now on the product team at Facebook, posted his thoughts in an article titled The Future of Advertising: Many Lightweight Interactions Over Time #. If you work in any facet of advertising it’s worth a read.

Anyway, sticking with today’s date rather than looking too far back (because nostalgia can be fatal to one’s ideas,) let’s look at what’s going on in the online product world just this month:

Facebook picks up Instagram (no link, it’s old news.)
Twitter creates IPA, the Innovators Patent Agreement # and buys social analytics startup HotSpots #.
TBWA launches product development arm, Pilot.is #.
Path raises $30 million #.

Facebook buying Instagram has the pundits all up in a twist trying to divine Zukerberg’s reason for purchasing the company, but perhaps it was only done to stop Instagram landing in the arms of a competitor that makes products: Google for instance?

The Twitter and TBWA news above came across my tweetfeed yesterday morning and of course there are more examples of big companies, ones that gain extra attention on the attention-scarce web, getting into the Internet of Things game that I must surely have missed. What I do know is that companies like Made By Many # have been at it for a while and Russell Davies # has been wrapping his head around Internet “things” for some time, and has had fun playing with them during RGAMakeDay #. And Portland-based Uncorked Studios # helped to make this – Safecast #.

Bell Labs has been at it for decades #. And recently we’ve seen Nest and Little Printer, two wonderful Internet products, one whimsical, one really useful #.

So what we are seeing is that it has been ongoing for a while, where it is a different way of approaching people online and interacting with them offline at the same time. Ongoing yes, but advertising agencies need to embrace change faster, even if by doing so they will only be drafting in the wake of the online users whose actions show us they are far out in front in this race.

Here’s a great quote from Iain Tait in a Techcrunch article # about his move to Google Labs:

“What I really want to do with my life is to get closer to the shaping of the connected world. For me that means getting deeper into the shaping of products and services, showing people the life-enhancing potential of technology, and helping to get those things into peoples’ hands. I believe that Google is in a unique position to make those things happen in the world.”

Perfect.

[Update] Techcrunch today: It’s Not About Instagram – It’s About Mobile #

Tags: advertising, Facebook, Google Labs, Iain Tait, Technology, Twitter, W+K

Comments

3 Responses to “Advertising versus products”

David Burn
April 18th, 2012 @ 12:32 pm

Making truly great products is a wonderful occupation, but so is making truly great communications. The problem with our business is how rarely we do that. We’re capable of it, but there are so many impediments, internally and externally.

As for Tait, he made partner at the greatest creative agency in the world in a nanosecond. I imagine that ruffled some feathers, big time. It may have also stripped him of motivation. Hard to say from the outside looking in.

Here’s a thought to chew on…the work we do for clients is a service, but the output is a product.
Dave Allen
April 18th, 2012 @ 2:33 pm

David,

As I said in my post I’m not going to second-guess Iain’s move but I will say that his quote speaks volumes, and clearly points to his passion. My first thought about the move was that Google gets to eat its cake and keep it, i.e. “Dear agencies, please continue to use our advertising services, oh and by the way we have some great products you can buy or license too..”

And then there’s “products as advertising” such as the Nike+ FuelBand. The product fulfills a subset of consumer’s needs but can easily go mass. And online’offline products are not new either – Apple did it with iTunes: Problem – a hard drive full of MP3s. Solution – iTunes library. In both the Nike and Apple product examples they have offline capabilities that are really useful.
Jordan Delapoer
April 19th, 2012 @ 12:22 pm

Maybe this is an oversimplification, but I think it all goes back to Marshall McLuhan. He told us (in the 60s, I believe) that, “the medium is the message.”

As advertisers, for a long time we’ve been able to get away with embracing that idea only when it’s convenient. And we get away with it in large part not because it makes for the best consumer experience, but because the norms of the channel allow us to get away with it.

That isn’t the case in digital. The people-powered web requires tools, utilities, services and experiences built for people. And if you look at what people engage with online (or in mobile) – Facebook, G+, Instagram, Google Apps – the medium really is the message. Sure there are online ads that break that mold, but mostly of them also attract less than 1% of viewers to click on them.

Not all brands manufacture a service or web utility, and they don’t have to to be successful online. But when they do try to reach a consumer online, they better offer something useful or interesting that’s in some way connected to their product or brand values and meets online users on their terms – what they want from said brand, when they want it, how they want it, where they want it…

Advertising versus products

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