3 Distinctions That Need To Be Drawn

People with little or no analytical abilities (e.g., account planners, CMOs, and, um, bloggers) often have a difficult time with facts. They frequently confuse things that sound the same but aren't.

Here are 3 items that the analytically challenged often are confused about.

1. Popularity As Evidence Of Effectiveness

When you read social media propaganda you often come up against remarkable statistics regarding the popularity of social media. Like there are more Facebook pages than stars in the Milky Way or more Twitterers than rats in the NYC subway system. Stuff like that.

This is given as evidence that using social media is ipso facto a good marketing idea. Of course, it proves no such thing.

One of the most popular communication channels in the world is the telephone. Yet it's a lousy marketing tool.

Popularity of a communications medium -- any medium -- is not necessarily an indication of its effectiveness as a marketing vehicle.

2. TV Viewing

We are often told that TV is dead. The proof is that the networks are struggling, prices are dropping, and ratings are down.

This is not proof that TV is dead. What is ailing is the old economic model of the TV business. TV viewing is actually at its highest point ever. The average American watched more TV in the past year than ever before in history.

The reason the TV business is in trouble is not that TV is dead. It's that there is too much supply -- too many channels. The reason ratings are down is that too many competitors are slicing up the pie. It's really quite a nice time for viewers. We have an enormous variety of options. And we are responding by watching more TV than ever.

3. Word Of Mouth

Social media maniacs often (patronizingly) explain to us pathetic fools that social media is more powerful than advertising because word of mouth carries far more weight than paid messages.

It is true, and always has been, that word of mouth is far more powerful than advertising. What is not true, however, is that social media is the same as word of mouth.

Word of mouth carries weight because it comes to us from someone we know and trust. Most product endorsements in social media environments come from people we do not know and trust. Too often it comes from interns paid by creepy social media practitioners to fabricate positive "buzz."

Consequently social media carries far less weight than word of much. And the more that social media hustlers get their greasy hands all over it, the quicker its already questionable credibility will deteriorate.

Brought To You By Your Central New Mexico Chrysler-Jeep Dealers

Recently, in Creative For Carpetbaggers, I commented on the idiotic ways that big companies moving into new markets always try to associate themselves with the area, and usually get all caught up in their underwear.

Today I would like to put another really dumb advertising tradition in the crosshairs -- superficial localization.

Let's start at the beginning.

The general purpose of advertising is to give a consumer a reason to buy your product. This is not easy. Usually an advertiser has way more to say about his product than can be fit comfortably into a 30-second tv spot or a 60-second radio spot or a 1/2 page ad.

And yet some advertisers are happy -- as a matter of fact, clamoring -- to waste part of those precious seconds and pages by saying something that may sound nice to them, but is useless to consumers. Something like: "See your Central New Mexico Chrysler-Jeep Dealer."

Here's why it's a waste.

It's been my experience that most people know where they live. If they live in New Mexico they're usually aware of it. It says so right on their driver's license. And if they are able to find their way home at night, I think we can safely assume that they know what part of New Mexico they live in.

Now it may be true that there are a few people who don't know where they live (you know, like account planners.) But even so, I think that if they live in Central New Mexico and they have a hankering to see a Chrysler-Jeep Dealer, they're going to see a Central New Mexico one. It's kind of a long trip to see a Western Illinois Chrysler-Jeep Dealer.

On the other hand if they live in, say, the Bronx, they're probably not going to see a Central New Mexico Chrysler-Jeep Dealer regardless of what the spot says. Even if they wanted to travel from the Bronx to see a Central New Mexico Chrysler-Jeep Dealer, mentioning that in the spot is of no use because the spot is not going to run in the Bronx -- it's only going to run in Central New Mexico.

So who, exactly, is that phrase meant to influence? Those who live in Central New Mexico and have no choice, or those who don't and will never hear it?

When you point this out to the account guy who insists on inserting this into a spot, the comment you usually get is, "well it doesn't hurt, does it?"

Of course it hurts.

There are very good reasons for advertisers to run regional and local advertising. But reminding people of where they live is not one of them. If you are taking 5 of your 30 seconds to remind people where they live, you are essentially taking 15% of your advertising budget and flushing it down the toilet.

So if you're a client and you're committed to pissing away 15% of your ad budget, don't waste it on superficial localization. Do something noble with it. Give it to an ad agency.

Which reminds me...
...of a great quote by an old-time comedian named Fred Allen: "Advertising is 85% confusion and 15% commission."

Those were the days.

Engineered By Illiterates

On the inside back cover of last week's (Nov. 2) New Yorker magazine, there's an ad by Land Rover.

The ad is supposed to impress us with the technological wizardry of the new Range Rover.

Only problem is, it's hard to convince us that people who can't write properly, can't hire competent proofreaders, and don't know the difference between its and it's can be very advanced at anything.

The headline -- "Eyes In The Front, Back And Side Of It's Head"

It's one thing to find a typo in a stupid-ass blog like this that has one semi-alert writer and no checks and balances. It's another to find one in the headline of an inside back cover.

We all know how many knuckleheads get their greasy hands on an ad before it leaves the barn. How in the world does something like this get through?

Thanks to Maria Winston for this and, oh yeah, happy birthday.