Rebirth of advertising: Kris Hoet at TEDxLiege
## Speaker Context
- Speaker identity: Presenter (Role not specified, presenting a theory on advertising).
- Audience: People interested in advertising (Implied by the topic and Q&A format).
- Setting, occasion of the talk: Presentation titled "The Rebirth of advertising."
- Framing the speaker establishes for themselves up front: Will convince the audience that advertising can be reborn and is interesting; plans to show no advertising during the presentation.
## People
- None
## Organizations
- Cannes Lions: International advertising festival that rewards the best cases in creative or innovative advertising from all over the world.
- Google: Company that makes money from advertising, mainly from search; trying to organize all the world information for use and to become better at it.
- Nike: Brand that believes we can all be athletes; has tools like the Nike+ and promotes the belief that we can find greatness in ourselves.
- Duval Guillaume: Organization that founded an exercise called "hero-brand."
## Places
- Belgium: Location where the speaker suggests they are on the verge of a big significant part of the rebirth of advertising.
- United States: Market mentioned for comparison regarding performance in advertising.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- Nike+: Product developed by Nike that taps into consumers' need for networking and value creation.
- Facebook: Platform mentioned in relation to advertising updates and social media reach.
- Skype: Example cited of technology not invented by a large telecommunication company.
- Spotify: Example cited of technology not invented by a large player in the music industry.
- Android: Example cited of a product built to evolve ("Build to evolve").
## Concepts & Definitions
- Advertising: A subject being re-examined for potential rebirth.
- Consumer Relationship (Historical): Initially, businesses and consumers were very similar; producers and consumers traded with each other.
- Business Power (Change): The relationship between businesses and consumers has changed, making it more difficult for consumers to complain or ask something from a business.
- Advertising (Modern/Flawed): Became associated with the power of advertising and the size of businesses, leading to departments disconnected from product creation, allowing "enough noise" to change perception.
- Advertising (Speaker's Definition): About enabling stories to be told, whether it is brand stories, product stories, or consumers stories.
- Brand's Purpose: The role a brand plays in society, answering "How is it going to make my life better?"
- Storytelling: One of the two key areas of modern advertising; where brands tell you a story; a lot of this happens in a traditional, more one-way space.
- Social Currency: The newer kind of advertising; something that triggers people to talk about it with their friends; requires "no control."
- Organic Reach: Metric shown on a graph tracking the reach from all Facebook pages over the last 6 months, showing a decrease from 12% (6 months ago) to 6% (now) for average pages.
## Numbers & Data
- 18 years ago: Time period when Duval Guillaume founded the "hero-brand" exercise.
- 12%: Average organic reach from a Facebook page 6 months ago.
- 6 months: Time period over which the organic reach from all Facebook pages was measured.
- 6%: Current average organic reach for a Facebook page.
- 4% to 2%: Range of organic reach decrease for a huge Facebook page (over half a million fans).
- 5 hours: Duration of the Super Bowl event mentioned for comparison.
- 6 to 12 months: Time frame predicted for Amazon to potentially succeed after initially failing in launching a coffee industry.
## Claims & Theses
- Advertising can be seen as something that can be reborn.
- The speaker will show a theory/way of thinking that advertising can be exciting.
- Belgium is on the verge, or will be, a big significant part of where this rebirth of advertisement will come from.
- Consumers used to be producers who traded with each other, where the shop owner knew them by name.
- Businesses gained more power in talking to consumers, making it easier for them.
- Advertising was invented, and it became worst.
- Technology brought two big major changes that impacted advertising, leading to a new balance.
- The first change was creating technology that helped us ignore or skip advertising (ways to record/skip content, downloading).
- The more important change is that through technology, people with similar interests started to find each other and networking scaled up by consumers differently than businesses.
- There is a new kind of balance between business and consumers through technology changes.
- The way this technology is being used and these networks created is something that we, as consumers, have done; businesses haven't done that.
- Big businesses' immune system fights against innovation.
- The winning products today are not just products with great communication or great ads; they are just great products.
- Advertising should be about enabling stories to be told.
- A product's communication must link back to what the product actually does, and this link must be addressed in the organization's start point.
- The best businesses are those rethinking the whole system, the whole product, and the whole business together.
- "Design is how it works, not what it looks like."
- The design index scores much better on creating value when focusing on design.
- "Build to evolve" is a better strategy than "build to last."
- Campaigns must be designed for the unknown and must be able to evolve over time.
- We cannot plan how people pay attention to a 5-hour TV show, so we cannot plan marketing plans defined for 6 months or 3 years.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- Early commerce: Producing things to trade with somebody else who would make something else; consumers were for each other.
- Business growth impact: Made it more difficult for consumers to complain or ask something from a business.
- Advertising invention/growth: Twisted the relationship, creating power dynamics where advertisers (departments) had no connection to product makers.
- Consumer Circumvention (Tech): Creating technology to help consume content as if there were no advertising (recording, skipping, downloading).
- Consumer Networking: People with similar interests/requests finding each other through the Internet, allowing consumers to scale up in a different way than businesses.
- Business Innovation Barrier: Large businesses' immune system fights against innovation because it is not natural for them to do.
- Hero-Brand Exercise: Looking for what a brand's game is, which is seen as the brand's purpose and its role in society.
- Storytelling/Social Currency Model: Advertising is delivered through storytelling (brand/product/consumer) and social currency.
- Data Analysis (Amazon/General): Analyzing data day-by-day leads to smarter outcomes, enabling different thinking.
- Network Design: Identifying nodes, doors, and common interests between people to play a role in the network.
- Design Process Integration: Transformation needs to go through the whole business, linking communication, product, and business structure.
## Timeline & Events
- Long ago: Shops and consumers were very similar; all were producing things to trade.
- When businesses started growing: The relationship between businesses and consumers changed.
- Super Bowl from 2 years ago: Specific event used for comparative data on tweet volume.
- Super Bowl all together: The comparative Super Bowl event.
## Examples & Cases
- Corner Shop Experience: Shop owner knowing a customer and setting aside a magazine issue because they know the customer likes it.
- Telephone Company Example: Difficulty calling a big company (finding number -> dial 1 -> 5 -> 7 -> back to start).
- Nike+ development: Example of a product/concept developed by an advertising agency, not Nike itself, relating to networking.
- KLM advertisement: Example post with the Eiffel Tower photo asking "Which city this is?"
- Google's function: Organizing all world information for users and improving its ability to do so.
- Nike's belief: Belief that all people can find greatness and become better.
- Amazon's coffee industry entry: Hypothetical case where Amazon might initially fail but succeed later due to data analysis.
- Steve Jobs Quote: "Design is how it works, not what it looks like."
- Android: Example of "Build to evolve" versus "build to last."
- Super Bowl Tweet Comparison: Showing the number of tweets during the show versus the number of tweets overall.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- Trade-off: Old commerce model (consumer/producer exchange) vs. current model (businesses gaining power).
- Trade-off: Advertising as pure noise/manipulation vs. advertising enabling stories.
- Trade-off: Traditional, one-way storytelling (in control) vs. Social Currency (no control, hoping people talk about it).
- Alternative Goal: Focusing on great communication/ads vs. building a great underlying product.
- Strategy Trade-off: "Build to last" vs. "Build to evolve."
- Ideation Method: Asking 1,000 people ("What would be a good idea?") vs. Listening to consumers for good ideas.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The presentation is not going to be a lecture.
- The short-term solution to advertising was creating technology to skip ads.
- The organic reach decrease on Facebook is due to both Facebook wanting more ad revenue and people wanting to control the content.
- If we try to control the uncontrollable, we break the system.
- Not everyone is doing interesting things with advertising right now.
- Doing a digital transformation in communication is insufficient; the transformation must go through all the business.
- I do not believe in crowdsourcing; it is asking the wrong question to the right people.
## Methodology
- Comparing performance using the Cannes Lions per capita metrics mapped against the country's size.
- Analyzing historical changes in consumer-business relationships.
- Analyzing consumer behavior data to derive insights.
- Comparing current organic reach trends against historical data (last 6 months).
- Examining index scores (Dow Jones Index / design index) to prove the value of design.
## References Cited
- Cannes Lions: International advertising festival (Context for Belgian performance metrics).
- Steve Jobs: Source for the quote: "Design is how it works, not what it looks like."
- Android: Example source for the "Build to evolve" concept.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The audience should go home and look for cases that are actual proof of the theory presented.
- The advertising must start with the product.
- Advertising should be delivered through storytelling and social currency.
- Brands need a clear vision of how they want to be better for society, and build products for that.
- The campaign must be designed for the unknown and needs to be open to evolving.
- Plan for the unknown, maintaining a clear purpose and target, while keeping the methods open to change.
- Do not think of advertising as an annoying interruption.
## Implications & Consequences
- If advertising is viewed as an interruption, the industry is in a difficult position.
- If businesses rethink the whole system/product/business, they will be the leaders.
- If a campaign is designed to stay for three years, it will fail.
- If a brand has a clear vision for betterment, advertising becomes much easier.
- If we fail to rethink the system, we continue to be subject to the pitfalls of concentrated business power.
## Open Questions
- The underlying nature of the new balance between business and consumers through technology change.
- What precise metrics define the "perfect" combination of brand purpose, product, and story delivery.
## Verbatim Moments
- "The Rebirth of advertising."
- "I'm hopefully going to convince you that it is actually worth looking at advertising as something that can be reborn, and that it's actually pretty interesting."
- "this flat country of mine."
- "We would all be producing things that we would use to trade with somebody else who would make something else."
- "You know, that magazine that you like, it's just coming in."
- "it takes you a bit of time to find a telephone number, only then to land on a number where you have to dial 1, and then 5, and then 7, and then it looks like you end up at the start again."
- "The relationship became such that because of the power of advertising and the size of the business, these became several departments, and the people who came up with the story saying: 'This is what our product is good for,' have no connection with the people who actually made the product."
- "It's not about launching more surveys, but if you already look at all the data that is out there about what people are doing, and analyze the data, there is this incredible learning you can get from it."
- "Design is how it works, not what it looks like."
- "Build to evolve" instead of "build to last."
- "We've got to plan for the unknown."