2009: Best Year Ever For Alibi Advertising

Yesterday we described alibi advertising, and predicted 2009 would be its shining moment.

Here's why:

1. When business goes bad, companies go crazy. Activity passes for progress; delusions pass for ideas.

It's so much easier to be reactive than to develop a strategy. There is not a company in America today that isn't considering throwing away/canceling/radically reducing its ad program. However, they'll need something to convince the "stakeholders" that they're "doing something." Enter alibi advertising.

2. Confidence in traditional advertising has greatly diminished. There are a lot of reasons for this -- some legitimate, some not -- and it would require a book to explain them all. It has been fueled by the ubiquitous media narrative that "advertising is dead" and the demented behavior of ad industry leaders who have failed to counter this argument (in fact, have fed it.)

3. The ascendancy of the web. In its brief life, the web has already spawned a truly impressive portfolio of idiotic ideas. But it seems so cheap to do something on the web, that gullible marketers just can't resist. And it looks so nice on a flow chart to have 52 weeks of web presence instead of a few 2-week flights of radio.

Of course, there will be a few winners. But for the most part, we can expect a torrent of truly awful, fruitless online advertising schemes. It's going to be a field day (a field year?) for skeptics.

How To Know If Your Online Advertising Plan Is Any Good:
If it's anything other than search, it's probably a waste of money.