I gave Ad Age a hard time this morning on Twitter for outsourcing so much of their content to industry pros, instead of relying on journalists (inside and outside their organization) to report news.
Clearly some industry pros are better than others and their opinions carry more weight. Pete Blackshaw from Nielsen, for instance, is one person in the Ad Age stable that I consistently want to hear from. Here’s a quick look at why that is:
Amid all the social-media banter, I’m just not hearing the word “trust” enough. Trust is the currency for all advertising, whether marketer-generated or consumer-generated. Lose it and we might as well close shop.
Social media and digital marketing will only succeed — and sell through the organizational layers — if we ground it in deeper, more established marketing truths, not ephemeral campaigns, one-trick pony moments, or hypocritical oaths or proclamations.
There’s more actionable thought in the above pull quote than you’re going to find in volumes of books and articles on this business.
Too many people in this ad biz are invested in making it complicated, either as a way to justify their rates, or as a way to make themselves appear smarter than they really are. But it’s not a complicated business, it’s simply a difficult one.
BTW, Blackshaw has a book for sale, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000. Here he is promoting it:
