2020 Advertising Industry Survival Guide

In recent years, remarks such as "4A is dead" and "advertising is in decline" have been rampant, and various creative self-media organizations have come to a conclusion in the competition for jobs: the advertising industry is undergoing a drastic reshuffle. How can we survive in the advertising industry nowadays when competition is so fierce?

“Don’t advertise” is all over the screen! The bigwigs in the advertising industry are wearing "pretense" when they go abroad, promoting LinkedIn's "no body" approach to the general public. As expected, it went viral in the circle, it provoked disputes and heated discussions, and it also prompted Brother Lang to think.

Coincidentally, a newly graduated friend asked me in the background that she was going to study advertising and wanted to develop in the field of copywriting, and asked me for some advice. I want to tell young people from the perspective of an unknown copywriter in the advertising industry: I advise you not to come!

1. This is an industry driven by resources and connections, with almost no standards

Many people think that the advertising industry is at least a creativity-driven industry. I used to think so naively, but as you work longer and longer, you will find that: creativity is important, but without resources and connections it is almost impossible to move forward.

No matter how good your idea is, if the client's leader doesn't make the decision and various conditions are blocked, you won't even be able to make the cut. On the contrary, if your idea is 60 points, and you can convince a core member of the client and get someone to support and recommend it, your proposal may win the whole show.

This is the basic business logic of this industry, because there is no standard for judging creativity, and it varies from person to person, so it is too flexible.

On the other hand, the clients of many super brands are basically divided up by international 4A advertising companies. If you don’t have the genes for foreign capital, can you take over big international brands?

Also, we can be the creative supplier of 4A.

European and American companies are divided among the major 4A agencies under WPP and Publicis; Korean companies have their own Jier advertising companies; Japanese companies such as Dentsu and Hakuhodo are also related; local group companies represented by SMG and Blue Label have a slight advantage among domestic companies.

There are still some local 4A and creative hot stores left, but after going through many trials and tribulations, they are now in a mess.

Among them, the ones that Lang Ge likes more, such as Tian Yu Kong, Waiwai, W, Yi Lei, etc., also have the background of 4A practitioners. The unique and wild Ye Maozhong and Hua Yuhua have established a big brand for themselves and live a comfortable life.

In addition, most of the tens of thousands of advertising companies across the country provide services in a servile manner, not seeking classic cases but only wanting to make a profit.

Think about it, in such a background, if you do some design and copywriting, package it strategically, and rationalize your creativity, you will basically be able to thrive. Why not do it?

However, the past era was an era with information barriers, and selling information gaps could bring huge profits, so the advertising industry once made huge profits.

However, the transparency of the Internet and the dulling of receptive capacity caused by redundant information have caused the advertising industry to lose its previous phenomenal business myth of "a CCTV advertisement sweeping the streets and alleys across the country". Instead, it requires long-term investment and hard work, and thus gradually becomes systematic and calm, diluting its former glory.

In this situation, it is difficult for newcomers to find an advertising company that is forward-looking and creative.

2. Traditional advertising theory is no longer effective, but most companies lack the courage to reform

In addition, Zheng Daming’s shock wave theory, his conclusion on advertising is consistent with that of Brother Lang. The information explosion has led to people’s lack of time. The amount of information people receive and forget every day is enormous. Yesterday’s hot topics become old news overnight. The scarcity of attention requires corresponding innovations in advertising.

However, the content produced by the advertising industry is still traditional promotional videos and posters. In the new media era, there are also topic marketing, H5 interactions, and social interactions. After just a few years, these have become boring, homogenized, and no longer fresh.

The current communication competition landscape is no longer about competing with competing products. Instead, the competition is about other information that is instilled into the general public, such as a movie, a variety show, a scandal, etc. The public has never specifically discussed how well a certain brand’s advertisement was shot, but every day people talk about a certain celebrity’s cheating, the character in a certain TV series, etc.

In the past, when information was scarce, brainwashing could be achieved by monopolizing a medium and promoting it through a bombardment-style promotion. It’s not possible now. Only content with self-propagation capabilities can produce results, and everything else will just fall on deaf ears.

Many advertising companies, based on their resource advantages, have work to do and money to make, and never think about the failure of traditional advertising theory, let alone carry out forward-looking reforms. Just do your job as usual! Anyway, the bosses have already pocketed the money, and the content industry is an asset-light industry so it makes money relatively quickly.

3. Advertising practitioners have no sense of dignity. They just do whatever the client says.

The rumors about Sun Dawei arguing with his clients are still circulating, but I have never experienced it. Brother Lang, most of the third-party companies I have experienced put customers first.

Speaking of lack of dignity, let’s not talk about other modification suggestions, let’s just talk about the experience of making a PPT for the children of a client’s leader. Have you ever experienced this? I did it anyway. My child is running for class leader and needs a campaign PPT, so I look for the template and write the copy. My child is having a speech contest on Children’s Day, so I look for the template and write the copy.

Do you think there is any dignity in this kind of work? In order to protect customers, what kind of infuriating things may happen? Let’s not even talk about the issue of unspoken rules.

This is the current situation. Of course, this may not just be a problem in the advertising industry, but I feel it more obviously in advertising companies.

I was just wondering, if clients cultivate their children's sense of superiority from a young age, to what extent will the child be spoiled when he grows up? What kind of princess syndrome is worthy of such a princess? You feel the huge gap brought about by class attributes all the time, and in the eyes of others, you are just a copywriter for my children's PPT. What dignity do you have?

Some people may say, Brother Lang, you are too biased. Not all companies are like this. The fact that the company you worked for did this only illustrates some of the problems in this industry, not all of them. You cannot generalize.

I agree, but this is just presenting this possibility to young people. As long as you can accept this problem, you can try this industry.

4. To see the prospects of this industry, you can tell by looking at everyone’s salary

We haven’t talked about salary yet, so let’s talk about the salary in this industry.

Not to mention art, whose salary is generally higher than that of copywriters, and copywriters can be said to be at the lowest end of the food chain in the advertising industry.

Everyone can read, which means everyone has the possibility to express their own opinions. So a piece of copy that can be published should be revised at least 3-5 times. The leader of your advertising company should review it, which is the first time; the client should go through one or two rounds of review, and then their leaders should also take a look. If everyone doesn't make some comments, it will feel like the work has not been done seriously. It's just one or two times.

If you keep going like this, with so many revisions, you will eventually become numb and basically lose the desire and passion for creation. Some people say that you can resist, you can convince them, and you can write beautifully in one go! I'm sorry, the reality is that I have never written an article without revising it, and I have never made an article more beautiful because of revisions.

Think about how many of the copywriting masters who are popular on the Internet are in your real life? I have never seen a copywriter with a monthly salary of 30,000 yuan. Where is he? Who is it? Any works?

Does Li Jiaoshou count? Does a Dong Dong gun count? Does Li Dan count? Does Xiao Ma Song count? I think when they earn 30,000 yuan a month, it is definitely not just due to copywriting. Let alone people like Li Xinpin, Chen Shaotuan, and Lin Guizhi, they are all people from the last era. Even if we mention it, among the tens of thousands of advertising companies across the country, how many people like this can there be?

But with a monthly salary of 30,000 yuan, there are jobs everywhere in the sales industry, finance industry, IT industry, Internet industry, and automobile industry. Can you say that you have any good prospects?

In my opinion, there are two points to measure the quality of an industry. One is the entry threshold, and the other is the ceiling of development. In the advertising industry, both of these aspects are low enough: the entry threshold is low enough, and the ceiling is also low enough.

A copywriter can probably enter the industry as long as he or she has two essays right after graduation. A designer who knows how to use various basic software can also be popular. If you are smart enough, you can copy from others and produce an excellent work - this is how you enter the industry.

What is the ceiling?

The ceiling is your position and maximum salary. It is obvious how much a director of an advertising company is paid. In the end, it is just the same money, and you still have to bow and scrape to the client and make PPTs for their children. This is a double-low industry, what is there to be proud of?

5. What keeps you going? Is it a dream?

There is no other choice.

I saw a joke on Douyin a few days ago. A middle-aged man in an office lamented: I can’t find my QQ password.

People around me give advice: You can get it back by asking questions! The man said, I have tried it. The first question is what is your dream? I forgot my dream. As a result, other people also asked the same question: What was my original dream?

This is clearly a sad story of a middle-aged greasy man. But it puzzled me for a while. After working for six or seven years, all dreams have long been forgotten. Few of my colleagues and friends still maintain their passion.

Although we wrote in the copy "Shining because of passion", we know that we have long lost our passion for many things. False shouts will not win applause.

If you ask a young person, he may still have dreams about this industry, but for us old hands, what are dreams? Can I change money?

People whose dreams are worn away by reality will find it really difficult to survive in this industry. Are there any job opportunities with a monthly salary of 30,000 yuan? Brother Lang, I’m signing up to lick your ass.

Author: Qu Tailang

Source: Qu Tailang (ID: qutailang1991)