The Case Against Advertising was one of the best talks at Btween 09 and picked up on a debate that’s bubbling away under the surface of the advertising industry. Is there a future for ‘traditional agencies and buyers’ in the developing landscape of the net? ……Dum Dum Dahhhh.

Everyone can see that the major strength of the Internet is in gathering groups of people around niche topics. So far brands haven’t done a good job of engaging with these communities. But things are changing and forwarding thinking brands such as Nokia, Doritos and HP are allowing consumers to think up ad campaigns and market them using social platforms. And its no surprise the results are great .
So where does this leave most of the industry? We have spent a lot of time weighing up the many variables to produce a robust formula and our test results have yielded the following conclusion: In the shit.

The Case Against Advertising debate ended with the following scenario. There will always be clients who want a big shiny adverts, produced by leading directors/creatives (more on that at a later date) but just a lot less of them. Unless companies can deliver a transparent results with obvious value then the industry could suffer big losses.

Value is an important term, it could mean increased sales, however it could also mean learning that your project has major flaws. It’s going to take a lot of experimentation and big balls to deliver these platforms and there aren’t too may client who are willing to let your idea flop at a major cost to themselves. We have to fail cheaply and as often as possible to get the best results. This calls for a business model of shared risk between clients and creators and a payment proposition that follows suit.