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The new advertising
Traditional advertising has been superseded by a strategy that fuses PR with the use of a range of channels to make a brand famous for the right reasons, not simply because of its ubiquity
Over the years, I have been approached to write features for a variety of publications on the subject of brand experience and non-traditional marketing techniques.
My immediate inclination is to view each feature as a free ad. The trouble is, most people see through this and disregard it as a blatant sales pitch. So, in effect, this approach backfires. You'll be delighted to hear that I won't be taking this route. Instead, I have decided to address a subject close to my heart. How we, as brand experience advocates, should describe what we do.
A while back, D&AD invited me to be a keynote speaker at one of its events. My presentation explored a modern definition of the word 'advertising'.
Traditionally, 'advertising' has meant TV, radio, press, cinema and posters. This definition has applied since the 60s and, guess what, that definition remains pretty much the same 40 years on.
The way I see it is a little less archaic and old school, and a little more authentic. We are all in the business of selling something for our clients - be it a service or a product. Clearly, there are many ways to do this. More often than not, the best route is to integrate several channels: to mix it all up and combine traditional routes such as TV, radio, press and posters, with new routes such as digital, experiential, mobile, ambient and other stuff less easy to categorise.
It is about getting people truly engaged and interested, as well as about making a brand famous for the right reasons, not simply because it has been plastered everywhere, so you can't get away from it. The name of the game is to seamlessly fuse PR with the traditional and new ad channels that are at our disposal.
What do you call all of this activity happening simultaneously? Simple. It's all bloody advertising. Not the 60s definition advocated by old-school ad agencies selling their clients expensive TV campaigns, but the modern, open-minded definition.
In my book, a brilliant brand experience has just as much right to grace the cover of Campaign magazine as the latest Guinness commercial. That's what really matters - doing brilliant work.
Too often, second-rate field promotions, sampling and event companies jump on the brand experience bandwagon and claim that they are offering something genuinely exciting and different. They adore the term 'brand experience' because it makes their offering appear more intelligent, more interesting and more strategic. The problem is, they rarely live up to the promise.
Good brand experience agencies need to up their game to show the traditionalists just what they are missing out on.
They need to demonstrate that advertising is no longer a monologue, but can be a powerful dialogue. They need to demonstrate that getting people engaged and involved is superior to getting people to look at something from a distance, and that in these modern, vibrant, challenging and ever-changing times, advertising has moved beyond just commercials and print.
No longer an act of basic persuasion, advertising has to transcend its traditional model. This is the new age of advertising.
Brands must stand shoulder to shoulder with entertainment, news and culture. The world is harsher, harder and faster - and advertising must adapt.
Advertising is now about creating an experience, making people smile and giving them something to talk about. It is an umbrella term for everything we do everywhere, with everyone -however it looks, feels or sounds.
Advertising is dead. Long live advertising.
John Carver is co-founder of Cunning
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