In 2017, I worked up the courage to call my mum and deliver some devastating news. After ten whole years of study, work experience and three years of medical school, I had decided I no longer wanted to be a doctor. It took her a while to get over not being able to tell people her son was saving lives.
Maybe the biomedical engineering degree, a master’s in marketing, 100,000 LinkedIn followers and a bloody weekly column on The Drum, softened the blow. But she was disappointed, I walked away from what she saw as a noble career that changes the world.
I’ve always disagreed with her.
Marketing is noble. It keeps pubs and planes full. It turns 25p cans of cola into £2 cans of Coca-Cola. It literally creates GDP out of thin air. This is why it hurts to admit that the marketing machine is failing.
We’ve never spent more on advertising. But it’s never done less.
Spend up, effectiveness down
Global ad spend is about to hit $1trn in 2025, up nearly 30% in real terms over the past 15 years. More brands, more ads, more cash.
But the results aren’t there.
Peter Field’s Crisis in Creative Effectiveness showed that creatively awarded UK campaigns no longer grow market share like they used to. In my new work with System1 and Effie Worldwide, analysing 1,256 campaigns across the US, UK, Ireland and Europe (The Creative Dividend), we saw the same collapse on a global scale. Campaigns are less likely to grow awareness, distinctiveness, trust, fame or consideration.
If you’re a marketing sadist like me, you can dig up more proof. Firework.com found Meta ROI has halved from $4 to $1.75 per dollar spent.
But the more useful question is: why is this happening?
It’s all our fault
Creativity is still the…
Read The Full Article at The Drum
