Opinion from the January 2009 issue of Urban Lifestyle Report - New Media

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Title: STOP bugging US!
Ok, time for my opinion. Where to start, I wondered, when I sat down to write this piece. There are so many things right now that are more or less bugging me. But I＊ll have to save some of them and go for the most important one of them all… Obama has set out to change the US, and it＊s time for all marketers to start a process of real and profound change in the field of marketing. No more excuses.

The days of interruptive advertising are about to run out. And it must stop really. Just think about it, don＊t you often change the channel on the TV when you are interrupted by advertising? Go to the bathroom or maybe put on a kettle of tea or coffee? Of course you do, because the ad spots are  interrupting you from watching the TV show or movie you sat down to watch. It＊s getting in the way of your experience. It＊s not adding to it but rather destroying it. Even though many advertising agencies might think their ads are a gift to the public, because they are clever, or funny or generally nice looking. But the truth is: it＊s still, for the consumers, mostly just an annoying part of the TV experience. And when these people, who are actually still watching old school TV, understand that there is a whole world out there without advertising, they just might turn away from that same TV, like many people I know already have. Do you really want to chase them away?

Marketing hasn’t really changed that much in the last 100 years or so. Evolutionary changes mostly. And up until now there wasn＊t much point to change a winning formula. But the last few years the consumers have changed, and the competition and divergence in the media space is punching holes in the current marketing paradigm. It＊s just a matter of time until all marketers MUST rethink the whole marketing game. At the moment only the marketers that want to stay in business in the future need to think about this. The other marketers could possibly keep going in old footsteps at least a couple of years more before they go out of business.

So what do you think? Will you be a dinosaur, just before the meteor hits the earth＊s surface, or an adaptive mammal which finds new ways to stay relevant?

And please, keep the consumers best interest in mind and don’t try to brainwash them with irrelevant and repetitive advertising until they turn away from you…

And oh, I have to say three more thing before I let you go; DRM is stupid and must stop all together, all companies should stop treating the world as separate markets and the Swedes who put #svpt i ALL their tweets should stop. Ok, that’s it. Feel free to protest against all my opinions in this blog post.

//Tomas Nihlén, Editor in Chief

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