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06.01.07
There are lies, dam lies and statistics!
By Paul Ashby
And boy have we had our fair share of these lately!
And the confusion it causes because we can never be sure just who is telling us the right statistic (or whatever).
That the world is a different place from forty years ago when advertising was the dominant force in mass communication should not be in dispute. However it seems to me that the problems facing the advertising industry is not that it has tried hard, unsuccessfully, to modernise and change (it hasn't). But that they continue to misappropriate the supposed effectiveness of advertising for their own ill-advised and ineffective objectives!
Moray MacLennan, incoming President of the (British) Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA) had this to say in his inaugural address:
"...An average £1 spent on advertising produces £5 in sales and £2 in profit. Based upon an annual investment in advertising of around £31.4 bn it can be calculated to add value to the UK Economy over and above the investment in media itself, of some £160 bn a year".
Blimey...who let him out prematurely?
Because just one word does justice to that little claim - preposterous! Please tell me what little hat did he find to pull that little gem from.
Perhaps he should liase with his US counterpart a little more frequently, for Bob Liodice ANA President and CEO recently had this to say on the subject of accountability: "...there is much work to be done to accomplish total accountability..."
Moray then went on to say that "IPA member agencies in this country may be better trained and more professional"...at what may I ask? Perhaps he means that they are better trained and more professional at dreaming up such nonsensical statistics (here I ask you to take notice that I did use the word "statistics") as the one he mentions above!
Or perhaps he means that they are better trained and more professional in the recommendation and preparation of 30-second TV commercials? Well commercials are the calcified dogma within agencies.
"Hey fellas I have just produced the most exciting idea in the history of advertising...I call it the 35-second TV commercial". Wow great new idea!
Meanwhile back in the real world both major Political Parties have ended their traditional billboard blitzes after they were dismissed as a waste of money by a Government-ordered inquiry!
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I am sure that Moray dismissed billboards advertising from his most interesting statistic - note please I did say statistic!
I recall attending a meeting with a research manager at Kraft General Foods where he informed us that he would spend hours every month trying to discover a small percentage increase in sales following on from an extensive advertising campaign...even he admitted that it was hard.
I also recall attending a meeting with Morays' agency, where we presented the findings of a £5 million investment in research as a result of one exposure to interactive programmes from around the world. One of his supercilious Account Directors attended, his reaction to the results? Well he informed us that "We might have £5 million of research, which appeared to demonstrate the effectiveness of Interactive Communication, but I have a feeling in my gut..."
Perhaps Moray got the effectiveness figures mentioned a little earlier from that same source!
In engineering it is said that "intelligence moves to the edge", well the same is true of advertising, there have been more good ideas killed by advertising agencies who were in the throes of the now discredited 30-second TV commercial. These ideas were dismissed out of hand and the practitioners were forced to eke out an existence with those few Clients who were prepared to experiment, safe in the knowledge that there were better ways of selling than the calcified dogma of a 30-second TV commercial. That better way is called Interactive Marketing Communication.
But for me the real interesting omission from Morays' inaugural speech was the fact that never once did the word "communication ever pass his lips in any real sense of the word...no definition...no acknowledgement...no nothing...and isn't communication supposed to be what it's all about?
Never once did he acknowledge the mounting problems facing advertising...those of the rising blizzard of clutter and the total lack of accountability...so everything's alright in the make believe world of advertising?
About the Author:
Paul Ashby pioneered interactive communication to the advertising and marketing communities some twenty-five years ago. The communication issues he addresses have been neglected during the explosive grown of advertising in the 60s, 70s and 80s, these are: Cognitive Dissonance, Selective Retention and Selective Exposure.
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