The list of industries radically transformed and even destroyed by disruptive technology continues to grow. Remember the newspaper business before Craigslist stemmed the flow of classified advertising revenues. And think about the billions that Skype has drained out of the telephone business. Then Apple’s iPod came along to destroy the retail music industry as we had known it for decades.
Now, another industry appears to be teetering on the edge of going the way of the dinosaur.
A feature story in the current issue of Fast Company begins:
Advertising is on the cusp of its first creative revolution since the 1960s. But the ad industry might get left behind.
Is advertising on the cusp of a creative revolutio0on or is the business in any recognizable form simply headed for extinction? Indeed, digital technologies seem already to be having an effect on traditional business models in advertising equivalent to that of the meteor 65 million years ago whose impact wiped out dinosaurs.
An extreme view? Just remember the newspaper, telephone and retail music industry as they were not much more than a decade ago. What are your thoughts?
My take is a bit different than most. I think (silly retronym ahead) traditional advertising will continue and thrive. More here:
Foretellings
Posted by: Chuck Nyren | December 08, 2010 at 02:48 PM
Obviously, new technology has served up some major opportunities - interactivity, customer created content,openings for smaller companies, borderless and finer targeting, time-shifting etc etc. That does not mean advertising is going away. Things will change for sure. For instance the basic tenet of talking "at" the consumer will change to talking "with" the consumer. That hopefully will force advertisers to become more honest. BUT, and this is a big but, the principles remain the same. Advertising, to be successful, needs to connect in a meaningful way to the consumer. That connection can occur across media - from print to digital, and everything in between. Those who are giving advertising a premature burial have confused the message with the delivery of that message and still don't get the need for the message to connect, which when all is said and done is far more important than the vehicle in which it is delivered.
Posted by: marvin waldman | December 09, 2010 at 05:28 PM
Agencies size and significance will shrink or grow based on their strategic significance to their clients, who are looking for ideas that engage and connect with their audiences and not simply ads.
Those that adapt will thrive; the others will indeed go the way of Adasaurus (yes, an actual species of dinosaur).
Posted by: Account Deleted | December 10, 2010 at 02:04 PM
Advertising is one that will eventually stay on because its is there that most businesses exist. The end of it will really have a big impact in the business world.
Posted by: SEO Perth | January 27, 2011 at 06:32 AM
One could argue that Apple actually saved the music industry with the iPod and iTunes. While everything was falling apart and file sharing was out of control (remember Napster?), Apple created a way for the music industry to reach this new audience, without the costs of packaging and shipping.
Posted by: Paul Ambrose | February 06, 2011 at 10:31 PM