Ad industry challenges for 2007

Beware the bunnyhuggers and politicians who are using advertising more and more as a scapegoat. Beware of allowing the impetus on transformation to be perceived to be slowing down - it will bite you on the bum big time if the process falters. And beware insularity, because not educating the public of this country about the important role advertising plays will doom it to something trivial and unimportant in the eyes of the consumer.

Transformation

I believe that significant strides have been made and the ad industry has at least shown a commitment that is streets ahead of its mother industry, marketing, where transformation is painfully slow, if it actually exists at all.

I have also seen a lot of ad agencies taking on black graduates and students and putting a lot of time, money and effort into learnership programmes, only to be frustrated beyond measure when clients nick their affirmative action employees the minute they get them trained up.

Task team

But, as for the other two challenges I mentioned earlier, there doesn't seem to be to much happening. Indeed, three years ago a task team under Y&R Gitam's Yossi Schwartz started looking at jacking up the image of the industry but in my opinion this process just isn't happening fast enough.

Because, as Schwartz quite rightly admitted at the time , it is no good promoting the ad industry to the consumer until it has actually got its own house in order. I just wonder, though, if it will actually ever get its house in order quick enough to counter rapidly growing perceptions among politicians, pressure groups and the consumer generally that advertising is one of the most trivial of all business pursuits.

Change perceptions

Whether the ad industry has now got its own house in order or not is now actually irrelevant and it is simply going to have to start looking at changing public perceptions. Because with each day that passes the job gets harder. Three years has passed and if one tunes in to any talk radio station show on the subject of advertising, it is patently clear that the public, and far too many businesses for that matter, still regard advertising as smoke and mirrors and certainly not contributing anything to the economy.

Speaking at an excellent Advertising Standands Authority (ASA) of South Africa function in Sandton two years ago, the MD of the World Federation of Advertisers, Stephan Loerke, representing US$400billion of annual adspend, said that the advertising industry worldwide was being used more and more as a scapegoat.

South Africa is typical of this situation where politicians leap onto the ad-bashing bandwagon because they know that the consumer couldn't care less and, even worse, because the consumer generally hates the intrusion of advertising, politicians are on pretty safe ground when it comes to criticising the industry or imposing restrictions.

Educating public

It is critical that our ad industry start educating the public about the crucial role the industry plays in the economy. I cannot for the life of me understand why there should be any delay in running ad campaigns, doing workshops in schools and to consumer groups and so forth. The ad industry has some wonderful and hugely convincing case histories that illustrate the importance of advertising.

Time is running out and public pressure is mounting.

Loerke told guests at the ASA breakfast that because the industry was turning out to be such a great, uncomplaining and passive scapegoat for pressure groups and governments, there was more than just a tendency now all over the world for advertising to be seen as one of the biggest culprits in alcohol abuse, obesity and destructive diets, growing materialism among minors and road deaths.

Ad bans

So much so, that advertising to kids under 12 years of age has already been banned in places like Sweden and Quebec; in Italy it is illegal to advertise to kids under the age of 14; and toy advertising is banned in a number of EU countries.

Lorke warned that political posturing and all manner of skulduggery is taking place in countries all over the world, to the detriment of advertising.

Fast food advertising has come under brutal attack in places such as Australia, New Zealand, France, Brazil, Thailand and hosts of other countries that formerly didn't give advertising more than a sideways glance.

Time is running our for the ad industry in SA. It needs to man the battle stations right away.

One wonders however, whether the industry will ever be able to get consumer education right. Because it seems to me that when times are bad for the ad industry, everyone in it is working 24 hours a day frenetically trying to get new business to stay alive. And when times are good, everyone in the industry is working 24 hour a day trying to service all the new business they're getting. Either way, it's all pretty much hand to mouth immediate stuff.

No-one, it seems, has time to start working on that big advertising picture called future survival.