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What Happened To Advertising? What Would Gossage Do?
The inconvenient truth about online advertising and social media.
Are brands really created by "branding campaigns"? Is there a single banner ad that was so brilliant or so effective that we all remember it? What has "display advertising" on the web become, if not the reign of large-scale, low-quality direct response?
What about our obsession with social media? Do consumers really want to have
"conversations" with brands? What is the real value of a Facebook Fan? What are social networks if not private enclosures of the web and advertising platforms?
Who was Howard Luck Gossage, and why should we study his work? Why was he more successful with things "interactive" and "social" 50 years ago than anybody has been in our "digital" era? Were he around today, what would Gossage do?
Are brands really created by "branding campaigns"? Is there a single banner ad that was so brilliant or so effective that we all remember it? What has "display advertising" on the web become, if not the reign of large-scale, low-quality direct response?
What about our obsession with social media? Do consumers really want to have
"conversations" with brands? What is the real value of a Facebook Fan? What are social networks if not private enclosures of the web and advertising platforms?
Who was Howard Luck Gossage, and why should we study his work? Why was he more successful with things "interactive" and "social" 50 years ago than anybody has been in our "digital" era? Were he around today, what would Gossage do?
- GenresNonfiction
92 pages, Paperback
First published March 21, 2015
About the author
Massimo Moruzzi
23 books2 followersStarting in 2000, I have worked or consulted for a number of start-ups from more countries than I can probably remember.
Unenthused about banner ads from day-1, I started a blog at dotcoma.it well before it was fashionable to do so.
This is my first book.
Unenthused about banner ads from day-1, I started a blog at dotcoma.it well before it was fashionable to do so.
This is my first book.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 13, 2017
I am quite impressed with the research that Massimo has done for this book. Right from the beginning to the modern days, Massimo has presented a great observation with instances to back his arguments. You cannot slide it off. The book is impressive for the beginners; the facts are important for the pros! Liked the book and the author's decision of writing it in a casual tone is also impressive as it works in the modern readership era. Good job!
July 19, 2017
Massimo's book on digital marketing and advertising worked very much for me in understanding the essence of online industries. Why do we advertise? The very fundamental question was answered very lucidly by the author who has worked in the same industry for so long. It is only the personal experience mixed with awareness and understanding of the author which we get to read as the readers in this book. I am impressed very much with the candid style in which the author has said important things and presented various facts... quite good a job there, Massimo!
November 11, 2015
I have a BA in marketing, although I didn't manage to land a job in the field :( . I like the subject. I like to keep myself updated.
This booklet is a gold mine; now that I finished it I have to go back to page 1 and re-check all the footnotes and links and books the author provide us with.
This booklet is a gold mine; now that I finished it I have to go back to page 1 and re-check all the footnotes and links and books the author provide us with.
May 11, 2016
While there are quite a few misdirects in this book, I did enjoy the frenetic pace and desperate tone. That along with its short length has it come across as an impassioned speech for change. These short excerpts give you a sense of what I mean:
- "Hype and B.S. are nothing new in the world of advertising, but things are getting out of hand."
- we need "to end the delusional thinking and start doing creative work that actually sells products"
- "That's when I learned that stuff that doesn't work...that's code-named 'branding'."
- "When and why did the absurd idea that you can create a brand just with ads - worse, with vague ad empty 'branding campaigns' - come to pass"
- "Mediocre agencies found it simpler to babble about values, positioning, branding, etc. than to do the hard creative work necessary to say something interesting enough about a product to help move it off the shelves."
On one level Moruzzi is correct. Advertising has become entertainment not sales. Branding has become about mission-led organizations not sales. It allows the purveyors of those services not to be held accountable for...sales. Incredibly, that is why they exist but they shy away from the task. Moruzzi rants some more, "no empty and vague feel-good happy-shiny-people-holding-hand 'branding campaign' has ever created a brand."
Having worked in start ups, Moruzzi admits that the catalyst for this book is the ubiquitous but highly ineffective digital advertising. He likens this type of advertising to solutions in search of a problem. It is of the most intrusive and least relevant sort and the majority of the book is a rant against it alone. That is fine and well-deserved but what makes the book a little less credible is praise for traditional advertising from the famous Creative Revolution.
He highlights the same campaigns that any marketing and advertising book does from the Mad Men era. The problem in doing so is he is missing the point that there were only a handful of good ads that each iconic agency from that time continue to hold up as effective. Arguably, this time in advertising became a game of more not better. Teressa Iezzi, staff editor at Fast Company magazine and previously editor of Creativity, wrote in her book, The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era, “For every “Think Small” in the 1960’s there was a bottomless bowl of the same insufferable dross that’s served up on any given commercial break and that covers the ground from forgettable waste of everyone’s time and money to actively annoying disincentive to ever buy the product being advertised.”
Moruzzi holds up Howard Luck Gossage (1917–1969) or "The Socrates of San Francisco" as a beacon for today's marketers. Gossage focused on storytelling and knew he was in the business of selling. So that makes sense but he fails to link the perceived successes of Gossage to what digital marketers what must do today. I am more a fan of the now defunct N.W. Ayer agency. Their work is the true beacon from advertising's debated history.
He hits a few good points when he takes on social media. This starts with the observation that "most companies do not like their customers." He makes the point that companies are mistakenly sending customers to social media platforms away from their own site that they control. Moruzzi says, "Most companies are scared to death about getting out of their steel and glass castles and having to open up to the outside world. Look at their uninspired advertising. Look at their lame websites. But all of a sudden they want to be hip on social media? Who do they think they are kidding?"
On content he suggests that brands shouldn't post anything unless they are willing to pay to distribute. This he believes would improve the quality and cut down on the overall amount of communications. Lastly, the author makes a point that I have subscribed to. Marketers are always attracted to the next shiny new toy thinking it to be a magic panacea. So the industry has trained itself to chase fads while training consumers to disengage.
While I believe the book is not accurately titled, it comes clear what he is out accomplish. Moruzzi wants marketing to be a considered craft again. A craft whose purpose is to sell. I hope he writes another but that the topic be on the 9 startups he has worked on in the last 16 years. That experience has prompted him to be frustrated and jaded. A deeper exploration into that might prove more valuable.
- "Hype and B.S. are nothing new in the world of advertising, but things are getting out of hand."
- we need "to end the delusional thinking and start doing creative work that actually sells products"
- "That's when I learned that stuff that doesn't work...that's code-named 'branding'."
- "When and why did the absurd idea that you can create a brand just with ads - worse, with vague ad empty 'branding campaigns' - come to pass"
- "Mediocre agencies found it simpler to babble about values, positioning, branding, etc. than to do the hard creative work necessary to say something interesting enough about a product to help move it off the shelves."
On one level Moruzzi is correct. Advertising has become entertainment not sales. Branding has become about mission-led organizations not sales. It allows the purveyors of those services not to be held accountable for...sales. Incredibly, that is why they exist but they shy away from the task. Moruzzi rants some more, "no empty and vague feel-good happy-shiny-people-holding-hand 'branding campaign' has ever created a brand."
Having worked in start ups, Moruzzi admits that the catalyst for this book is the ubiquitous but highly ineffective digital advertising. He likens this type of advertising to solutions in search of a problem. It is of the most intrusive and least relevant sort and the majority of the book is a rant against it alone. That is fine and well-deserved but what makes the book a little less credible is praise for traditional advertising from the famous Creative Revolution.
He highlights the same campaigns that any marketing and advertising book does from the Mad Men era. The problem in doing so is he is missing the point that there were only a handful of good ads that each iconic agency from that time continue to hold up as effective. Arguably, this time in advertising became a game of more not better. Teressa Iezzi, staff editor at Fast Company magazine and previously editor of Creativity, wrote in her book, The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era, “For every “Think Small” in the 1960’s there was a bottomless bowl of the same insufferable dross that’s served up on any given commercial break and that covers the ground from forgettable waste of everyone’s time and money to actively annoying disincentive to ever buy the product being advertised.”
Moruzzi holds up Howard Luck Gossage (1917–1969) or "The Socrates of San Francisco" as a beacon for today's marketers. Gossage focused on storytelling and knew he was in the business of selling. So that makes sense but he fails to link the perceived successes of Gossage to what digital marketers what must do today. I am more a fan of the now defunct N.W. Ayer agency. Their work is the true beacon from advertising's debated history.
He hits a few good points when he takes on social media. This starts with the observation that "most companies do not like their customers." He makes the point that companies are mistakenly sending customers to social media platforms away from their own site that they control. Moruzzi says, "Most companies are scared to death about getting out of their steel and glass castles and having to open up to the outside world. Look at their uninspired advertising. Look at their lame websites. But all of a sudden they want to be hip on social media? Who do they think they are kidding?"
On content he suggests that brands shouldn't post anything unless they are willing to pay to distribute. This he believes would improve the quality and cut down on the overall amount of communications. Lastly, the author makes a point that I have subscribed to. Marketers are always attracted to the next shiny new toy thinking it to be a magic panacea. So the industry has trained itself to chase fads while training consumers to disengage.
While I believe the book is not accurately titled, it comes clear what he is out accomplish. Moruzzi wants marketing to be a considered craft again. A craft whose purpose is to sell. I hope he writes another but that the topic be on the 9 startups he has worked on in the last 16 years. That experience has prompted him to be frustrated and jaded. A deeper exploration into that might prove more valuable.
November 6, 2016
Massimo made a remarkable work with putting a great bibliography together to distill may be thirty minutes of mandatory reading about the sad state of web advertising.
Every person with the slightest interest in the matter should have a look and read the book.
As said, bibliography stands out: this book is also a portal towards everything is worth learning about web, social media, and advertising.
Bonus: the author knows the history of advertising very well and you'll discover why we are in this situation, and where the industry come from.
Only one question goes unanswered, the one in the title. About who Howard Gossage was, read the book. The answer is more than worthy your time.
Every person with the slightest interest in the matter should have a look and read the book.
As said, bibliography stands out: this book is also a portal towards everything is worth learning about web, social media, and advertising.
Bonus: the author knows the history of advertising very well and you'll discover why we are in this situation, and where the industry come from.
Only one question goes unanswered, the one in the title. About who Howard Gossage was, read the book. The answer is more than worthy your time.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews