Death of the idea?

Randall Rothenberg mourns the demise of the idea over here at adage - has it been forever replaced by celebrity endorsements, product placements, sneaky editorial advertorials and event marketing?

"The Great Idea in advertising," wrote legendary market researcher Leo Bogart in his classic text, Strategy in Advertising, "is far more than the sum of the recognition scores, the ratings, and all the other superficial indicators of its success: It is in the realm of myth, to which measurements cannot apply."

Today, advertising is suffused with non-ideas. True, marketers now accept that the 30-second TV commercial has reached the end of its useful life among an audience that is diminishing anyway. But instead of heating a new cauldron of creativity, the frantic search for alternatives has, rather, driven them to seek solace in formats, not in the meaningful combination of content, form, venue and intent.

Excerpt from Strategy in advertising by Leo Bogart

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Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
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Hidden Persuader's picture

True .. sad, but very true. Everyone is talking about the death of the 30'' TV spot, the marketers that work with mature barnds find it less reliable and expensive; the agencies get their gross income from the media fee, that's how the currente ad agency model is built around. The problem: sometimes the agencies tend to forget that their core biz is .. to sell ideas, good ones, particularly ones that create envolving feeling towards a brand and may lead to repeated pruchase (hey this a biz in'it?). The so-called creativity fee is becoming less relevant (profit-speaking) than the frequency/time-usage of media. But this can lead us to a paradox: If the idea is remarkable it will lead to more media space buying, more investment from the brand managers etc. Everyone will be happy in the end. Nevertheless i reckon most of the times the marketers don't trust the competencies of the creative people at agencies, so getting away with good ideas that sell, generate buzz, awareness etc. is not so linear. Whose fault is this? Ad agencies? Marketers? Both? Where's the logical balance of power?

James Trickery's picture

The commercial might die - but the pure idea never will as it's the sharpest tool we have.

AnonymousCoward's picture

Maybe...but the reality is that advertising is nothing more than an attempt to sell a product or service. The "great idea" should be to get results. Period.
Proud to say our agency is measured and paid based on the results our campaigns create.
lhaase