We are in the middle of an advertising revolution. People have been sick of being bombarded with dull and un-inspiring messages for a while, but now they have the means to tune it out.
In a recent Yankelovich report on marketing receptivity, nearly 70% of people polled said they are interested in products which block advertising and 56% said that they avoid buying from companies who overwhelm them with too much marketing.
So what do people say that they do want? According to the study, the top three marketing practices that consumers want are:
- "Marketing that is short and to the point" - 43%
- "Marketing that I can choose to see when it is most convenient for me" - 33%
- "Marketing that is personally communicated to me by friends or experts I trust" - 32%
In other words, concise, consumer-controlled and viral are the ways to go!
So how do marketers achieve this? The answer, of course, is that most of them are not achieving this. However, one glimmer of hope comes from the fact that 55% also said they enjoy advertising, which has increased from 47% last year. It seems to me that creating advertising that people actually enjoy is a really important way to achieve the three objectives above; advertisers are, judging from the above numbers, starting to wake up to this.
Making more progress here means educating clients and agency folks alike: maybe its less important to deliver statements of fact about the product (yawn!) and more import that we help consumers just have fun with advertising.
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