Among the many ills that afflict the advertising industry, there's currently one that is epidemic-- the pursuit of false goals.
If you are ambitious and want to reach the upper echelons of your agency, it is imperative that you avoid this disease.
There will come a day when you have to make an important presentation.
There will be a roomful of high ranking clients. You will be presenting the results of an expensive advertising program. You will have charts and graphs and Powerpoint slides and video clips and all manner of stats and data.
You will describe to the attendees how awareness numbers have risen sharply; you will show a chart that demonstrates increasing purchase intent; you will explain how the media buy delivered 8% lower cost-per-thousand than the plan anticipated; you will explain the impressive social media metrics that were achieved, and that brand attributes have risen sharply.
Your contact person at the client organization will be sitting proudly watching you deliver the good news.
But there will be a problem. The problem will be that there will be a smart person in the room. And the smart person will ask one question: What happened to sales?
You will dance and sing and whistle and do ventriloquism. But if the answer is anything other than sales increased, you're dead. Oh, they won't embarrass you in the meeting. They'll wait for you to push the down button and then they'll rip you to pieces.
There is one and only one true goal of advertising -- to sell stuff.
There are plenty of delusional people all around you who don't get this -- your client contact, planner, account exec, creative director. They want you to believe that that there are other more virtuous goals.
Do not get mislead by these people. Your objective is not engagement (whatever the hell that means) or branding (ditto) or gathering friends or likes, or raising awareness or...
Your one and only goal is to sell shit. Sooner or later, someone smart is going ask what happened to sales. And if the answer is wrong, it's aloha and mahalo.
If you are ambitious and want to reach the upper echelons of your agency, it is imperative that you avoid this disease.
There will come a day when you have to make an important presentation.
There will be a roomful of high ranking clients. You will be presenting the results of an expensive advertising program. You will have charts and graphs and Powerpoint slides and video clips and all manner of stats and data.
You will describe to the attendees how awareness numbers have risen sharply; you will show a chart that demonstrates increasing purchase intent; you will explain how the media buy delivered 8% lower cost-per-thousand than the plan anticipated; you will explain the impressive social media metrics that were achieved, and that brand attributes have risen sharply.
Your contact person at the client organization will be sitting proudly watching you deliver the good news.
But there will be a problem. The problem will be that there will be a smart person in the room. And the smart person will ask one question: What happened to sales?
You will dance and sing and whistle and do ventriloquism. But if the answer is anything other than sales increased, you're dead. Oh, they won't embarrass you in the meeting. They'll wait for you to push the down button and then they'll rip you to pieces.
There is one and only one true goal of advertising -- to sell stuff.
There are plenty of delusional people all around you who don't get this -- your client contact, planner, account exec, creative director. They want you to believe that that there are other more virtuous goals.
Do not get mislead by these people. Your objective is not engagement (whatever the hell that means) or branding (ditto) or gathering friends or likes, or raising awareness or...
Your one and only goal is to sell shit. Sooner or later, someone smart is going ask what happened to sales. And if the answer is wrong, it's aloha and mahalo.
Remember this, amigo -- there is no quicker route to oblivion than the successful achievement of false goals.
