Re: Why online advertising sucks

From: Rob Frankel <rob_at_robfrankel.com>
Date: Wed 28 Feb 2001 10:40:36 -0600

TERRY LEFTON <tlefton_at_thestandard.com> WROTE:

>I am the ad/mktg/sports columnist for The Industry Standard
>(recently, after 10 years at Brandweek) and am in the midst of
>researching my cover story on the difficulties the industry is
>facing. Yeah, we know, there's an overall media recession. Yeah, we
>know dot-coms advertising has gone away. And we know the metrics
>problem. What we don't know is why more big brands aren't investing.
>Advertising, in our opinion, has NOT followed eyeballs.

>I'm thinking there is actually a backlash, where clients are
>avoiding online advertising since it didn't deliver on the initial
>problem.

>Any and all comments are welcome and if you agree, you may find
>yourself in the pages of what we like to think is an influential
>weekly magazine. (well, at least it is weekly).

For my money, the reason why big brands aren't investing is as
simple as, well, Michael Eisner's ability to make dopey public
statements about the web:

Anyone working in the upper tier of "big brand" companies knows
what happened: these are the guys who would rather buy their
way out of problems than actually work through them. These
are boardroom managers who delegate matters they don't know
about -- like branding and advertising -- to people who know even
less.

The people who know even less follow their bosses' lead and tend
to fall for the recommendations made buy the agencies who look
and sound as if they know what they're talking about. Big glass-
walled offices, strange art on the walls, expensive clothing and,
of course, the obligatory sand box in the lobby.

I know, I know. You're thinking, "where's this guy Rob been?"

Well, the truth is that I very often have to clean up the messes
these middle managers and agencies make of their marketing
and advertising. And the first thing I have to do is teach them
what branding is and isn't. That gets everyone rowing in the
same direction and aligns their expectations. Once the boardroom
pashas understand what to expect, so do their middle managers
and their agencies. Everything runs smoothly.

The "big brands" have gotten burned by their own ignorance --
and I'll say it -- their own arrogance. They made the mistake
of thinking that because they're big, they're infallible. Or
because they're successful, they can buy their way out of
problems.

They can't. As our rodent-eared friends found out with go.com.

Rob Frankel

"Branding is not about getting your prospects to choose you
over your competition; it's about getting your prospects to see
you as the only solution to their problem." (sm)
-- Rob Frankel, consultant and author of "The Revenge of Brand X:
How to build a Big Time Brand on the web or anywhere else."



Received on Wed Feb 28 2001 - 10:40:36 CST