Above the crowd?
The marketing biz has been fielding an especially heavy round of shots lately — and admittedly, some are justified. The FCC has clamped down in recent months on several broadcasters of children’s programming, fining them for exceeding the limit on minutes allowed for commercials aimed at that suggestible audience. Attorneys general in several jurisdictions are targeting spammers and spimmers, who have flooded e-mail and instant messaging channels with unwanted and dubious come-ons; thanks to the AGs, those folks are starting to get hit with million dollar fines and even jail time. Go get ’em, I say. ▪ But there have been other salvos aimed at marketing in recent weeks that seem more alarmist than substantial. Apparently taking its cue from the darkly futuristic Tom Cruise flick Minority Report, the PBS documentary program Frontline ran in early November a 90-minute “exposé” of the advertising clutter that permeates American culture. “The Persuaders” revealed — gasp! — that marketers conduct research so they can better understand how consumers think and feel about products. It pulled the lid off the fact that, as the 30-second spot loses its relevance, those products are getting embedded in the shows they previously framed. To drive home to viewers the degree to which U.S. culture has reached a branding frenzy, the producer/narrator wandered through Times Square, filmed as a vertiginous wasteland of flashing logos. ▪ Alright, alright, we get it: Marketing has become omnipresent. But have you noticed — the campaigns that seem to annoy consumers (and the Frontline producer) the most are the ones that aren’t very good anyway. These are the (media ads, spam, perfume spritzes, awkward product placements — fill in the blank) that don’t really connect with the audience, don’t respect consumers enough to earn their loyalty over time, that try to win with a mere catchy phrase or glitzy image. As James Surowiecki wrote in the November Wired, “The truth is, we’ve always overestimated the power of branding while underestimating consumers’ ability to recognize quality.” ▪ Perhaps, but I tend to think promotional marketers are more in tune with the way consumers live with the products they sell. These brand managers and agencies are in the stores, in the streets, on the ground, always evaluating and improving on the value a brand brings to the consumer. ▪ This issue, we get to celebrate those campaigns that are the very best examples of all that is right about the current state of marketing (beginning on p. 27). The winners of the 2004 PRO Awards stand out for work that makes us all proud!
