Paris-based freelance writer and media consultant, Frédéric Filloux, says digital advertising sucks and the ad business is suffering from “lethal self-complacency.”
In the news business, we have a rule of thumb: an electronic reader brings 15 to 20 times less in advertising revenue than a print reader does. I’ll stop short of saying this dire state of affairs is only attributable to advertising. Between inadequate interfaces, poor marketing, and the certainty that, just by itself, intellectual superiority entitles to success, medias carry their share of responsibility in this situation. But, for the most part, it is the advertising community who missed the digital target.
Filloux suggests media companies, not ad agencies, will begin to solve the problem by developing their own creative teams and working more closely with big advertisers. I don’t doubt it. I just wonder why the ad business can’t get its head around the demands of this media.
Filloux suggests it is “hard to reform a fat-cat culture – from heavy margins, captive clients, cozy cronyism – to a more agile one, where technology and innovation drive the business.” Clearly, but it’s not just the fat cats making bad digital advertising.
