Has the advertising industry lost its way?

The advertising industry is in crisis. Many people hate ads and some research indicates that ads have lost their effectiveness. SA’s most memorable and impactful TV adverts were made between the 1980s and late 1990s. It was a time when ads like Sasol’s “Ama-Glug-Glug” and Telkom’s “Molo Mhlobo Wam” represented more than just a visual marketing tool to sell a product. The ads of that era had meaning, they inspired and shaped culture, and they played a vital role in unifying our nation.

Today, South Africans are subjected to fake, overprocessed, overstylised and severely photoshopped pieces of communication with curated and exaggerated perspectives of life. It’s concerning that for an industry that spent R47bn in 2021 in media alone — excluding agency fees and production — what we see is mostly wallpaper that neither builds brand love nor delivers on its effectiveness.

Despite the changing media landscape, left-brain thinking and short-termism may have something to do with it. According to Lemon, by System1 Group’s chief innovation officer, Orlando Wood, culture over the years has fluctuated between left-brain and whole-brain thinking. We’re now apparently in a left-brain-focused period.

Because the left brain’s primary tool is language, the ads use prominent voice-overs, monologues to camera or regular metered prose. Words obtrude on the visuals, spelling out what you should be thinking and how you should be reacting to what you’re seeing. It shuns things that only the right brain understands, so there is no room for characters, betweenness, dialogue or drama.

During what was known as the “golden age of advertising” — from 1960 to the mid-1990s — creatives produced top-quality advertising with the highest production values. It required exotic locations, famous names, brilliant film work, masterful special effects and seamless editing. While it took time and required large budgets, the results were impactul and long-lasting.

In the past two decades we’ve seen many of independent SA advertising agencies disappear as they were acquired by major international holding companies like WPP, Omnicom and Publicis. It’s estimated that 80% of the industry is now in foreign hands. These companies were built on the idea that by putting all the capabilities of the marketing and advertising ecosystem under one roof — creative, research, PR, media buying and planning, digital production, and social media — they could act as a one-stop shop for the world’s largest marketers. What this has led to is a marketing-driven approach to drive profit using short-termism as a strategy.

On the flip side, the move to digital media has also seen more people moving away from traditional outlets such as TV, radio and newspapers. Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime don’t have any adverts, and advertising budgets are being spent where audiences — and especially young audiences — now go: online and social media.

With so many digital channels competing for our clicks it’s no surprise that we can’t focus for too long. Marketers therefore encourage short-term sales activations which focus on productivity, standardisation, repetition and risk avoidance. This hurts creativity and creative effectiveness, and ends up squeezing agency fees and profit margins. Adverts look flat, with no depth, perspective or backdrop. The people in an ad then also tend to be devitalised, expressionless and presented as statues.

Advertising has the power to challenge the status quo, especially in SA, and address issues like racism, diversity and representation, culture and inclusion. With digital media here to stay, it’s crucial that mindsets shift to finding the balance between long-term effectiveness and short-term demand.

I do believe we are again on the verge of change. Consumers are demanding that brands become more authentic, placing social and environmental considerations at the fore of their buying decisions.

Brands will need to consider their purpose and ensure that it connects to culture. The Edelman “Earned Brand 2018” study refers to consumers as “belief-driven buyers” — they choose, switch, avoid or boycott a brand based on where it stands on the political or social issues they care about. This will give marketers the opportunity to inspire and uplift society.

Traditional media is making a comeback. While the closure of Associated Media Publishing (AMP) and Caxton magazines came as a shock, many magazines are hanging on. And what we have seen with the printed newspaper industry is that local newspapers are playing a more dominant role. Their supporters perceive traditional media channels as more trustworthy than online media. Concern around fake news and the speed with which it is posted and shared online makes it harder for people to trust what they read digitally.

It ultimately boils down to brands and marketers understanding who their customers are, what they do and what they love. Because we know that consumers are always looking for engaging content, the key is for advertising to tap into culture in a unique way.

Creativity that is informed by culture turns heads. Advertising needs to prioritise getting under the skin of consumers and create memorable characters and situations. Effectiveness is a consequence of brands investing in the creation of ongoing support for distinctive brand assets and collections of assets into fluent devices over time.

* Mpume Ngobese is co-MD of Joe Public United