ihaveanidea | The Next Creative Frontier

by Warren Tomlin

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write; they will be those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. — Alvin Toffler

Only advertising people with their heads firmly planted in the sand don’t realize that the traditional advertising model is broken, and it’s only a matter of time before the dams break and the industry has to start bailing for its life. Online advertising represents only a fraction of current media spending, but it is increasing every day as clients realize that passive advertising effectiveness is in decline. If the advertising industry is going to evolve, it’s the creative class who have to take action.

A successful ad is dependent on the number of people who see it and register it. When there were three major networks, a few major daily newspapers and a handful of mainstream magazines, this was much easier to accomplish. The dawn of specialty cable channels changed our reality slightly, with the higher channels competing for the niche crumbs. People didn’t like ads, but they put up with them because of the unwritten contract that the content was brought to you by the advertiser.

This model of media depends on scarcity in order for it to be valuable. The more scarce the media, the more valuable it is to the advertisers (market share) and the more valuable the content is to the viewer (restricted choice). But in a world where digital cable and broadband internet provides a billion channel universe to the average user, media scarcity no longer exists. People can now consume information and entertainment on their own terms, which often means free of advertising.

(Full Article: ihaveanidea | The Next Creative Frontier)