2019 Advertising Industry Mid-Year Observation

Advertising that is not aimed at growth is a hooligan

I was chatting with the head of a production company, and he talked about the recent situation of Director X. From January to June last year, X received 10 films. During the same period this year, guess how many he received? 1 item. The sudden drop in demand reflects the contraction of corporate marketing budgets this year and also reflects that the ROI of video advertising is difficult to be satisfactory.

It’s not surprising when you think about it. How many video ads really broke through the circle and became popular in 2018? You can count them on one hand. How many popular videos have you seen in the first half of 2019? The production and delivery costs of video ads are staggering. If you don’t have 100 million, don’t even think about working for CCTV; if you don’t have 10 million, don’t expect to make a splash on Weibo and Weibo.

Video (brand advertising) certainly has its place. It is more like the ginseng soup of wealthy families, which is used to maintain health and show off wealth, not to treat acute diseases. Business owners who are short of money and have heavy burdens have changed their mindset: if they cannot achieve product quality and effect, they will settle for second best and hope for effect first.

When talking about results, we cannot avoid the topic of growth. This year's situation surprised me. Businesses’ desire for traffic has never been so urgent. When meeting a customer, the first thing he says is “I want users to register for the APP!” "I want to sell goods"! "I want people to watch the press conference"! Be impatient, simple and straightforward. Advertising is no longer what it used to be, where it was just about branding and beautifying the appearance. The brand department spends so much money and is responsible for the above-mentioned KIP.

The current traffic is almost exhausted and everyone is a little hysterical. Where is the way out? Seeking innovation and change has become a political correctness. New methods such as digital experience, growth technology, and event marketing can make the boss see the presence of the brand department. Regardless of whether the effect is good or not, at least you are a reformer, and the cost-effectiveness is slightly better than spending a lot of money on TV advertising.

Most companies cannot equip themselves with extraordinary growth teams like Didi, Toutiao, and Pinduoduo - this is a new profit opportunity for advertising companies. The new idea is to pay based on results. Instead of charging service fees, we will receive commissions from growth performance. This will eliminate false growth in digital marketing and test your real skills.

Independent companies should learn from the broad-mindedness of international companies

With the advent of the post-4A era, independent companies have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain and flourished everywhere overnight. The biggest impact that the collapse of international advertising companies has brought to the industry is that no one takes the training of new talents seriously anymore (in fact, in the past decade, international companies that have been experiencing poor business have also been powerless to do so). Many independent companies treat young people as cheap peanuts, exploiting them hard without considering whether they have a future.

Many years ago, my company hired an Australian expert with a daily salary of $40,000 to provide one-on-one guidance on proposal skills. Thinking back now, it was really a good decision. International companies are generous, even if the people you spend a lot of money training will eventually leave. A highly respected boss named Song said: "If I leave, I can make this industry shine better."

I think the training of new talents can be started at three levels.

First, let him participate in the project, give him support and guidance in a timely manner, gain experience in practice and improve his emotional intelligence; second, let him participate in industry forums to gain breadth of mind and vision; finally, share daily information and improve business level through fragmented learning.

Creativity is difficult to teach. The key words for creativity are "belief" and "insight". There are too many emotional factors and many things that cannot be expressed in words. Therefore, the ability to transfer creativity depends largely on the master-apprentice relationship. The professional ability of the boss determines whether the young people will drink soup or eat meat tomorrow. In the past, those at the director level were mostly top-notch talents with considerable levels of strategic thinking, creativity, execution, communication, and leadership. His requirements for young people are based on their own abilities. Among the independent companies that are springing up everywhere nowadays, how many of them are truly worthy of the title?

For young people with a long-term vision, the company's reputation and salary are not the criteria for career selection. The key is to find the right boss. If you follow the right person, you will be successful. Five years later, the girl or boy who ignored you back then will regret it for the rest of his life. What kind of boss is worth following? Here’s what Paul Valery said:

Serious people have few ideas, people with ideas are never serious.

Chat with him for a few minutes and see if he is funny. By the way, the international company that spent a huge amount of money to hire someone to train me in proposal skills was called Ogilvy.

If you can tell a good story in 15 seconds, you have a future

Luke Sullivan wrote a book called "Copywriting Fever", which is regarded as a bible by new advertising talents. One chapter is titled: In the future, everyone will be famous for 30 seconds.

I think he is exaggerating, it's not 30 seconds, it's only 15 seconds. In the past, 30 seconds was the standard length for TV ads, which told a thorough story and the media fees were acceptable. Once upon a time, we urged our clients to invest in 30 seconds, as 15 seconds wouldn’t tell the story clearly and the audience wouldn’t be satisfied. In addition to these lofty reasons, there are also selfish motives of advertisers: Who doesn’t want to shoot a blockbuster film, put it in their portfolio, and use it as a bargaining chip in the next interview to negotiate a good position and a good salary? At the beginning, clients disliked 30 seconds and pushed for 15 seconds, mainly because the TV station charges too much and 15 seconds can be cast more times.

Now, 15 seconds is becoming the mainstream because young people have no patience. Young people who have been spoiled by short videos like Douyin and Kuaishou have no time to read your long articles. Short is the new trend in advertising creation. At last year's Cannes International Creative Festival, there was a session that even discussed how to make a good 6-second ad. The popularity of short videos such as Tik Tok, which pursue weirdness, unconventionality, and boldness, has changed the way of thinking about creating advertisements. The purpose is to give the audience some kind of emotional stimulation through vision or hearing in a short period of time, and the goal is to achieve that "stunning", "explosive" or "hilarious" moment.

If a TV commercial fails to catch people’s attention within the first 5 seconds, it is likely to fail. Right from the start, you need to have a big imagination, a simple story, and direct performance. Kevin Allocca, head of YouTube's culture and trends department, said: "The highest level of advertising is to entertain the public." Of course, some people say that there is no fixed rule for creativity. Isn't creativity about breaking the rules? I just want to shoot a 5-minute video. There is indeed no fixed rule for creativity, but we should also know that following the laws of communication can achieve twice the result with half the effort. Don't forget that before creating, there is a lesson called consumer insight.

Problems with the work and the effect are ultimately problems with talent.

Continuously improving the talent density of the team is the mission of every leader. Recruitment is not just a temporary task, it needs to be done every day. When you meet someone powerful, you have to create conditions even if there are no conditions.

When I pick up a new employee’s resume, I often ask myself, will he bring honor to the team? Will you tell your friends, "You know, there’s a new guy in the company, he’s awesome…"? Great people only want to work with great people. When talented people come together, they form a super team. When a super team takes action, whether it is getting business or executing projects, nine out of ten times they will be able to achieve overwhelming success, forming a virtuous cycle.

If you hire a lot of mediocre people at the beginning to save money or because your business expands rapidly, you will only attract more mediocre people in the end. Matthew effect. The talented people are unwilling to come, thinking that how can sparrows understand the ambition of the swans; even if they come, they will not stay for long, as the sparrows will always conspire to drive the swans away, and bad money will drive out good money. For individuals, David Droga once warned: If you want to be a top creative, you should work with the top ones. If you want to become a creative person, you should hang out with creative people.

For example, if you come up with a second-rate idea, a third-rate creative person will applaud it; a first-rate creative person will tell you that it is not good enough and to keep working on it. Experts compete with each other to unleash potential. When many young talents enter the industry, they pat their chests and shout, "I want to change the world with my creative passion." Within two years, reality hit them hard, some people became cowards, and some quit the industry. The fundamental reason is that I joined the wrong team. Mediocrities are unwilling to take risks. They are afraid of losing their business and therefore have no stance. They lack talent so they do everything in a sloppy manner. Great people should be with great people. Like glowing fireflies, they can easily find each other in the dark. When they gather together, they light up the way for the industry.

Technology is everything? Be careful of being beaten back to the original

Cannes is a weathervane for global marketing innovation. Applying technology to the marketing field is still the politically correct phrase that CEOs, CMOs, and CCOs often talk about this year. But the technological innovation in 2019 showed a slight decline. This makes people miss the masterpieces such as "Afa Dog", "The Next Rembrandt" in 2016, and "Restoring Kennedy's Voice" in 2018.

The biggest reason is that technological advancement has physical bottlenecks. For example, Moore's Law for microprocessors, which states that the number of components that can be accommodated on an integrated circuit will double every 18 to 24 months, and performance will also double, has become invalid. If you look closely, you will find that technologies such as AR, VR, LBS, driverless cars, image recognition, and sound recognition/synthesis have been around for quite some time. There are no disruptive breakthroughs in technology that everyone can use. It is not possible to create surprise by simply showing off technology. What we need to think about is how to use these technologies skillfully.

Technological progress has bottlenecks, but fortunately there is no end to creative concepts. Technology should not be the protagonist, but a means to realize ideas. Being witty is still important. Being witty requires profound insights into life, and witty works make people exclaim. Burger King’s gold award-winning work this year used AR technology to “burn” McDonald’s ads and then reveal its own discounts. The Grand Prix in the Innovation category uses sound recognition technology to connect to a mobile phone and tell the deaf and mute what sounds are coming from around them, such as a baby crying, someone ringing the doorbell, etc.

Let’s get back to the topic. Are you observing life carefully enough? Looking at the whole event, we can be inspired that the combination of technology and business is undoubtedly the way of tomorrow in China. The application of cultural conflict has been proven to be effective overseas. For example, Nike's support for athletes who angrily criticized Trump is probably not suitable for our current national conditions.

For companies with internal creative teams, we do not

If you bring your ex-partner to a blind date, someone will always get hurt. It is a good thing for companies to build their own internal creative team (i.e. in-house team). Firstly, it saves costs, secondly, it speeds up response, and thirdly, the team understands the internal and external situation of the company. The problem is that some business owners are eating from their bowls while looking at what's in the pot, and gradually their eating habits become ugly. The internal creative team didn't have an easy time either. Jobs's daily pampering of Jonathan Ive was just a rumor among the public.

In most cases, things grow slowly as they become more mature, and cracks appear gradually. Lack of sense of distance will magnify shortcomings infinitely. Leaders began looking for external advertising companies to come in. This is a true story. An advertising company submitted a creative proposal, but unexpectedly, after the proposal was submitted, several people from the client suddenly stood up and also submitted their proposal. It turned out that they were an internal creative team, and they called it an internal competition. Now, the people from the advertising company and the internal team started fighting on the spot.

This business deal will most likely end in a bad way. If the boss thinks the external team is good, the internal team will be unhappy and have no sense of existence; if the boss thinks the internal team is good, the external team will feel discouraged, then why should they contact us? In most cases, the internal team wins. No matter how bad you are, you are still one of us and have many opportunities to communicate with the leaders. Wise agents stay away from such businesses. There is also an unlimited liability company, which talks with advertising companies, collects creative ideas, and then hands them over to the internal team for execution. The success of cooperation and the glory of a campaign are built on a high degree of trust. Without trust, innovative projects will not be possible. Because innovation means risk, and risk brings anxiety. A high level of trust is the magic weapon that helps business owners overcome anxiety and difficulties and hold on to the end. When running a business, you should not employ people you doubt, and trust people you employ.

Excellent advertising people are all pigs, omnivores

In the college entrance examination in June, countless students applied for the advertising department despite the opposition. Do you think you applied for the advertising department?

You actually applied for the Foreign Languages ​​Department! Learn English well, at least pass the Level 6 test, go to an English corner to practice your spoken English, so that you can understand excellent creative works from overseas in the future and make use of foreign knowledge for your own benefit.

You actually applied for the Computer Science Department! Learn C language, Python, and Java, and work in communication in the digital age. If you don’t understand technology, in a few years, you may really have to sing and beg at the train station.

You actually applied for the History Department! Advertising belongs to the cultural communication industry. Only by understanding a country’s culture can one understand the essence of human nature and have the opportunity to create great ideas that touch people’s hearts.

You actually applied for the Design Department! Modern people are visual animals. A picture is worth a thousand words. In this era of information explosion, who has the patience to read the content of advertisements? Impactful images, coupled with short and powerful titles (or no titles required), can quickly capture consumers' attention.

You actually applied for the Department of Physical Education! Creation is a physical job, which requires a lot of overtime and many people become bald. Relying on drinking, smoking or taking unspeakable substances to get inspiration is a practice of draining the pond to catch fish. Haruki Murakami runs long distances every day, using his physical strength to support his intelligence, and he has continuously created many popular novels.

You actually applied for the Department of Economics! Advertising is for sales. As Ogilvy said a long time ago, only by understanding the ups and downs of the economy and the changes in the market can you help clients sell good products.

You actually applied for the Chinese Department! Writing skills are extremely important. Advertising is the art of persuasion. To convince your clients and consumers, you must appeal to their emotions and reason.

On the surface, I applied for the advertising department, but in fact I applied for all disciplines including philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management, and art. Creativity is a new combination of old elements. The more knowledge you gain, the stronger your creativity will be. Advertising is the most difficult major. If you want to be a great advertiser, you have to learn all the knowledge.

Which one do you prefer, strategic advertising or creative advertising?

There are thousands of bad advertisements, but there are two kinds of good advertisements: those with a strong strategic flavor and those with a strong creative flavor.

Strategic works are full of momentum and often have strong connections with social psychology, current politics, cultural traditions, and competitive situations. For example, when UA invited Phelps to shoot Rule Yourself, they dared to invite Phelps, who had fallen to the bottom of his life, to star in it. Fortunately, he worked hard and made a comeback in the subsequent Olympics. Another example is Dove's Real Beauty, which believes that beauty is not just the privilege of models and celebrities, but that the general public also has the right to be beautiful, and it invites women with average looks to play the leading roles.

Creative advertisements come from the sudden inspiration of creative people, such as McDonald’s “Cradle”, which is a stroke of genius and a classic among classics. For example, in one advertisement, the plane door is open and the parachuting instructor is loudly commanding a student to jump down. The student dares not to do so. The instructor picks up a box of Budweiser beer and throws it down to lure the student to jump down. At this time, the pilot without a parachute rushes out of the cockpit and jumps down without saying a word.

The difference between strategic works and creative works usually lies in whether there is a surprising turning point. The joy of advertising often lies in this kind of twist. Makes people laugh and cry. Occasionally, you can see works that perfectly combine strategy and creativity, but they are rare. Strategic advertising is a long-term investment. Following this strategy, you can produce many works, but there is usually only one creative work, like a joke. A truly classic joke is unique; a series of jokes that follow the same pattern are not funny. Both models have the potential to create great work and are suitable for different stages of a brand, depending on budget and media. I personally prefer the latter. The former is easy to get, while the latter depends entirely on luck and talent. A flash of inspiration will greatly please the consumer.

Author: F5 Shanghai

Source: Shuying.com