The cover of Andrew Essex’s The End of Advertising caught Insider’s eye for obvious reasons. Essex is a former journalist and Madison Avenue agency exec turned CEO of Tribeca Enterprises.
Essex thinks TV, radio and the internet advertising will go away due to irritating formats, ad blocking, live streaming and time-shifting. He is less pessimistic about out of home:
“Would Times Square ever go dark? Probably not or at least not as certainly as other forms of advertising, because OOH was perhaps the last monolithic form of communication, resistant to time shifting or the whims of the individual.” page 46, The End of Advertising
You may not agree with Essex’s premise that conventional advertising will go away but there’s a lot to learn from his 10 Principles for Better Advertising. Here are six Essex principles Insider finds relevant to out of home.
Context is as important as content. Think about where the ad will appear and if it will be welcome. Insider thinks of billboards for a North Carolina haunted house (picture on right) which were taken down because residents thought it promoted child abuse, domestic violence and sex trafficking.
Manners matter in advertising. Don’t be rude.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Demonstrate restraint. Insider thinks about the problem created by too many billboards too close together. Low rates. High vacancies. Scenic backlash. Just because a community has 500 foot spacing doesn’t mean that you should build every 500 feet.
Make people care with interesting stories. Or interesting pictures in the case of out of home.
Microtargeting people with ads they don’t want, no matter how sophisticated the underlying technology is merely a more elevated form of junk mail to be avoided at all costs. Spam is spam even if it uses the greatest new jargon-laden technology. People respond negatively if you push unwanted ads pushed to their cell phones when they walk by a billboard. Make sure they opt in.
Intuition is a great gift. If you suspect your ad is bad, imagine what the civilians think.
The book is a thought-provoking three hour read read so purchase a copy for your next plane flight or long weekend.
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