It's actually quite shocking how oblivious the ad industry continues to be.
The advertising community has had a wonderful time over the last 50 years making 30 sec ad slots for clients keen to tap into the world's huge media networks. However, brands are increasingly finding that those networks no longer offer the value they once did. Simply because there aren't the same...
...number of people watching them, and if there are, they are using technology to avoid ads. This has led to big brands turning to the new distributed infrastructure of the web.
However, old-school ad boys like Mark Wnek think that the ad industry will take all this in it's stride, because as he states in today's Independent, the web is really just a "canvas for commercial messaging".
Wnek believes that ad guys will just turn their skills effortlessly from one medium to the next. After all, he points out, "Who will fill these canvases in a way that excites consumers? The creative ladies and gentlemen who live in advertising agencies, that's who."
Oh dear. I don't suggest that the industry is going to disappear tomorrow but it really does lack insight into quite what a haggard old business it has become. Never a good position - as the dinosaurs discovered.
Wnek seems to have not noticed that increasingly 'these canvases' are being filled by other people who have access to their own media for the first time. Jonathan Miller, Head of AOL in the US says that 60 – 70 per cent of the time people spend on AOL is devoted to ‘audience generated content’. Meanwhile, that pop-up zapping sound gets louder and louder.
It seems Wnek is offering himself up as our own Jack Trout.
UPDATE: An edited version of this letter appears in today's Independent media section. They take out the 'haggered' reference. Shame.
The "canvas for commercial messaging" comment ought not be in quotes, since he did not write those exact words.
Who is Wnek anyway? Is he an ad guy or a journalist, or both?
Posted by: David Burn | May 18, 2005 at 10:41 PM
Hi David, your right about the grammar but I think the meaning is intact. Wnek was the MD of Euro RSCG in the 90s and is off to be head of a Big Agency (Grey) in NYC soon.
Posted by: James Cherkoff | May 19, 2005 at 01:50 PM
I feel odd, having turned myself in to a grammarian, in this instance. Sorry, if I offended.
Thanks for educating about this Wneker (sounds like _________).
Posted by: David Burn | May 19, 2005 at 02:15 PM