Attack Dogs On The Loose

As predicted here recently in Is The Pendulum Swinging?, web maniacs are going bonkers over Malcolm Gladwell's piece in The New Yorker called "Small Change."

From the Huffington Post to the most obscure dirty-basement bloggers, the digi-nutjobs are coming out in full force against Gladwell.

Gladwell dared to question the orthodoxy of web fundamentalism and is paying the price.

These people are like attack dogs. You can question the existence of God; you can question the right of free speech; you can question their mother's legitimacy; but if you dare question the primacy of the internet in all human endeavors they will jump you and maul you.

I have seen it with alarming regularity on this blog.

I can poke fun at planners and they'll take it with a laugh, I can criticize creatives and they'll have some perspective, I can joke about account people and they'll roll their eyes. But if I dare to say something unflattering or unorthodox about the web -- and in particular social media -- I am subject to torrents of abuse.

Well, it's nice that for at least a few weeks these lunatics are jumping on someone else.

Have fun, Malcolm.

Look For My Article...
"The Digital Dream World" in the online edition of Adweek tomorrow. It should get the attack dogs all nice and lathered.

And Speaking of Attack Dogs... 
If this was the old Gap logo...

and this was the new one...

...the same yapping web poodles would have been barking and foaming at the mouth.

The Future Is Behind Us

Memo To Staff:

For several years now, we have been known as the agency of the future. How can we claim this? Because it says so right on our website!

It has not been easy being the agency of the future. But thanks to our commitment to empowering our empowerment, and tearing down walls, and breaking down silos, and updating our Facebook page, and Content Technology, Search, CMS, WCM, MRX, ECM, Multilingual, E20, KM, and XML we are at the forefront of agencies whose websites say they are the agency of the future!

Of this we can be proud.

But the world is changing rapidly. Today the consumer is in charge. In the past, nobody knew who was in charge. Sometimes people with nice suits were in charge. Sometimes it seemed like Wolf Blitzer was in charge. Then there was the time when the Spice Girls were in charge.

But now we know who’s in charge, and it’s the consumer. Just send out a tweet asking, “Who’s in charge?” You’ll soon get back plenty of replies telling you that it’s the consumer. (Ignore the tweets from my cousin Sheldon who thinks he’s in charge. He’s not.)

We are living through a very tumultuous era. It is time for us to realize that the future is behind us.

We can no longer be satisfied being the agency of the future. Today, we have to look beyond the future, to a time when the future will be but a distant memory.

We must realize that in today’s inter-globally connected world, inter-connectivity is globular. And maybe not just globular, but inter-globular! Our clients expect that our inter-globularity will exceed their expectations and create the opportunity for a multi-channel globuverse.

Those who do not respond to the changes that are happening all around us will be left behind to do radio spots and pay for their own football tickets.

Recently, your management team had its annual retreat.  The theme was Preparing For The New Future By Being Prepared And Looking Forwarder 3000. 

We tackled this thorny subject head-on. We spent three no-holds-barred days discussing the branding of our brand in light of the new realities of the digital revolution and all that mobile stuff. We had Powerpoint presentations, and "conversations," and everything. 

After one particularly penetrating session, a deep insight was revealed.

We have to realize that it is not enough to execute sound strategies. We have to have a strategy for our strategies --  how will our strategies be strategically different from the strategies of our competitors?

In other words, we need a strategy strategy.

To accomplish this, I have appointed a team from our executive committee. They will be known as “The Team From Our Executive Committee.” Their first job will be to find a consulting firm to help us develop our strategy strategy.

In order to accomplish this as rapidly as possible, we have hired a consultant to help us identify the consulting firm that will help us develop our strategy strategy.

I am very excited to be part of an exciting effort to leave the old future behind and develop a new future for us all. We can all do our part by Preparing For The New Future By Being Prepared And Looking Forwarder!

Is Facebook Hurting Web Advertising?

I have another crazy theory.

I think Facebook is having a negative effect on the development of web advertising.

I think that most of us who do not have a vested interest in promoting web advertising believe that, with the exception of search, it has thus far been a disappointment. For obvious reasons, few of us are willing to stand up and say this out loud.

Nonetheless, I have very little doubt that someday the web will be a substantially more effective advertising medium than it is today. But that day may be farther away than we think.

My reason for believing this is found in my hypothesis that the enormous popularity of Facebook has been a setback for web advertising.

Here's the logic.

As I've mentioned previously in this blog, one of the problems the web has as an advertising medium is that it is too many different things. It is a medium of communication, a medium of information, and a medium of entertainment. This may be big fun for us web-addicted ADHD sufferers, but it is not good for advertising.

A medium of communication is generally not very effective for advertisers. Nobody wants to pick up a telephone and hear an ad instead of a dial tone. When we are in communication mode, we don't want to be slowed down.

A medium of information is also generally not very good for advertising. Nobody wants to open a dictionary and see an ad. Once again, when we are looking for information, we usually want it now.

As a rule, the best type of medium for advertising is a medium of entertainment. We are used to having our TV and radio programming interrupted by ads. It may be annoying, but we have come to accept it. (Believe it or not, there is even a pretty convincing study that indicates that advertising improves the enjoyment of TV watching.)

It is my hypothesis that until the web comes into its own as an entertainment medium, it will not fulfill its promise as a powerful advertising medium.

Over the past few years, the dominant emerging website is Facebook

Facebook is a vehicle for communication. It is like a "broadcast telephone." It broadcasts our thoughts to our "friends" and those of our "friends" to us.

I go to my Facebook page at least 2 or 3 times a day. I can't imagine a less impactful advertising medium. I can honestly say that I don't think I can remember seeing a single ad on my Facebook page in the last month. (As a matter of fact, I just went to my Facebook page to make sure that there actually are ads there.)

The problem is, the success of Facebook is making the web a far more compelling medium of communication than of entertainment. Other very popular emerging websites, like Twitter and foursquare, are also about communication.

Meanwhile, entertainment sites are popular but not dominating. Although 2 billion videos are viewed on YouTube daily, according to Nielsen video viewing on the web accounts for only 1% of total video viewing. Television still commands 99% of video viewing.

The more that the web is used as a medium of communication, and not entertainment, the longer it is going to take for it to reach its promise for advertisers.

That's my oddball theory, and I'm sticking to it.

Special Note...
To all you "advertising is dead/the consumer wants to have a conversation with us/the web changes everything" adherents, please don't feel compelled to leave a comment reminding me that I just don't get it. I know I don't get it. I haven't gotten it for years.