Today’s Tip: Don’t buy shares in anything to do with Advertising!

If you understand the word “communication” then it will help to provide you with an understanding of the crisis that is sweeping the globe in the wonderful wacky world of Advertising!At present there is almost no confidence in Advertising and no confidence in the media.Sad to say that no one is offering a devastating account of the way naïve advertising people, who, by the way, most certainly don’t understand the communication process, have managed to hoodwink Clients into parting with vast sums of money into dubious, unaccountable TV advertisements!Is there an Advertising Agency who could make a virtue of being the one who understands the current situation, and now sees it abused by most other agencies?Younger agency people do not appear, nor understand, a burning public resentment at the ever-increasing clutter of commercial messages.  This clutter is driving potential customers away from the interruption model of advertising. Advertising is as much about imagery as delivery. Which might explain why boring old direct marketing languishes unfeted among the world's marketing and advertising glitterati who remain seemingly oblivious to such humdrum matters as return on investment.And because they don’t understand the word “communication” these same young advertising people are now rushing to Web 2.0 without paying any attention to the obvious pitfalls awaiting them…Some of which were outlined by McDonald's corporate vp of global marketing, Johan Jervoe, who stunned Web 2.0 Holy-Grailers as he warned of the dangers of marketing brands via YouTube and similar social networking media.To do so, he said, forces marketers to relinquish control of how their brands are perceived by consumers and poses significant risks in moving from a 'push' to a 'pull' advertising model.Businesses that advertise on line are facing an uphill struggle to connect with users of social networks as they grow weary of brash ads and become more hostile to digital marketing, according to recent research.In a poll conducted by Facebook , more than half of users between 13 and 49 said that they never trust the marketing material they receive and 46% went as far as to say Internet advertising was driving them 'insane'.The ubiquitous pop-up is a particular source of irritation – 90% of the 800 people surveyed voted them the least trustworthy source of Internet marketing.The results demonstrate that marketers are at risk of alienating their target audience and are damaging their chances of making sales by swamping potential customers with banner ads and pop-ups.There is also anecdotal evidence that there is growing distaste among consumers regarding networking sites using their details for marketing purposes.Marketers are becoming more and more interested in using social networking websites as an effective marketing tool to target specific types of consumer, however consumers felt their privacy was being undermined and that they were being targeted by irrelevant marketing. We advised companies to think of ways of connecting with customers in a less obtrusive manner.It is interesting to note that, among Marketing people, Direct Marketing is considered the most effective technique, placing it atop the  Marketing Effectiveness Ranking. DM also ranked above web advertising, despite five digital media platforms – email, paid search advertising, on line referrals, on line display advertising and on line rich media. I will close by saying that there is one proven technique available to you here and now and that is Interactive Marketing Communication…. Properly executed of course!