Advertising as wallpaper or window: How has the role of advertising changed?

Yeah. I think this is right: "On signal-driven channels like social, ads seem to work differently. Less like wallpaper and more like a window showing things you might actually want." The recent Touchpoints IPA report (from whence much of this conversation came) unexpectedly cited a quote from physics: "matter cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed". It's a fun reference. The report author, and many observers here, have noted that time spent with media has barely been changed *net* in a decade - that's the 'neither created nor destroyed' bit - but I've seen less written about the 'only transformed' part. There's an argument been made that consumers don't see the difference and that, say, TV is TV is TV whether it's on a 42" at home or on a smartphone deep in the Bakerloo line. That talk of complexity is chiefly a residual of the buying mechanisms rather than consumer experience. I get it, it's a point with merit, but I don't think I agree. I think interfaces/contexts/UI have pretty meaningful effects on the consumer side. We don't even have to get stuck into digital for this, we've got history: Cinema has long justified itself by its unique experience; few people have ever claimed that it was interchangeable with TV just because both are based in video. Even if one was watching the exact same film consumers react differently in the environment and, accordingly, the ads are different too. So when you do see video in-feed on social platforms, the ads work differently once again. And you don't need a social expert to tell you that even stuff which works on social platform x (make your own jokes here) may not work the same on y. This is proved in resultant metrics - on the occasion where we do run approximately similar inputs on different networks, outputs are different. And I don't think it's fully explained by this or that algorithm. Back to the surface: I agree with Pete's take. Ads do work differently depending on where (and how) they are. And the lesson from the IPA report shouldn't so much be 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. Rather, that each mode - image, text, audio, video - is now truly multiform, and each form compels an individual mastery.

A compelling case for more creativity and emotion in advertising. “$900bn media is now about 75% digital […]. That’s approximately 900 ad impressions per person per day, or around 1,200 with traditional channels.” How does one stand out? Read on. https://lnkd.in/gXTVDKrm

10 Principles of Advertising (Bill Bernbach) 1. Go to the essence of the product. State the product’s essence in the simplest terms of its basic advantage. And state this both tangibly and memorably. 2. Where possible, make your product an actor in the scene; not just a prop. This makes for a tremendously effective method of getting your product remembered. Because the provocative element in your advertising is also the element that sells your product. This is so simply stated, so difficult to execute. 3. Art and copy must be fully integrated. They must be conceived as a unit, developed as a unit. 4. Advertising must have vitality. This exuberance is sometimes called “personality”. When advertising has a personality, it is persuasively different; and it is the one because of the other. You must fight to get “bounce” in your advertising. 5. It is little less than useless to employ a so-called gimmick in advertising —- unless the gimmick itself tells the product story. 6. Tell the truth. First, it’s a great gimmick. Second, you go to heaven. Third, it moves merchandise because people will trust you. 7. Be relevant. A wonderfully creative execution will get the big “So what” if it isn’t meaningful to their life, family, business etc. And always opt for an ad that’s relevant over one that’s exciting and irrelevant. 8. Be simple. Not simpleminded, but single minded. Who has the time or the desire to listen to advertising? 9. Safe ideas can kill you. If it’s been done before, your competition will be ready for it. Your only chance of beating the competition is with advertising they’ve never seen before. Which means you’ve never seen it before either! Be brave. 10. Stand out. If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything has been wasted. https://lnkd.in/eyT9kBUq

Advertising is not an investment. Advertising is an expense. Or at least, mediocre advertising is an expense. We like to think of advertising as an investment mainly because it makes us feel more important, and because it supposedly helps “convince” the CFO to approve brand budgets. But the truth is: For large and stable brands operating in mature categories, advertising is mostly an expense. 1. If advertising is an investment, it’s probably the worst investment in history. Global ad budgets are breaking records and are on track to reach a trillion dollars in the coming years. And yet, ROI from advertising keeps declining both at the bottom of the funnel (BOF) and the top of the funnel (TOF). I’m adding a link to an excellent article by Andrew Tyndall on this topic that made a lot of noise in my feed this week. 2. We love the myth that advertising drives growth. But most (large) brands in the world don’t grow. There’s an old EBI study that examined 600 large brands across 28 different categories and found that only 4% of them managed to achieve even 1% growth in market share over four years (CAGR). I’m adding a link to a great post about this that also sparked a lot of discussion. 3. A large part of advertising’s effect is simply canceling out the effect of a competitor’s advertising — especially in undifferentiated categories. Brand A’s campaign cancels out B’s, which cancels out C’s, and so on. That’s why the most basic rule in advertising is SOV = SOM: we need to spend a lot of money on advertising just to hold our ground. Now, brands that stop advertising do tend to see sales drop, but even then, for large brands, the decline is around 10% after three years without advertising. (I’m adding a great EBI article on this as well.) Advertising is a weak force. Very weak. And in most cases, for large brands, advertising is an expense. Advertising can become an investment only in two rare cases which almost never actually happen: When we spend significantly more on media than our competitors and our category share, and do so consistently for many years . When we create fucking great advertising, significantly better than the category standard. That doesn’t happen. Advertising is an expense. Or more precisely, mediocre advertising is an expense.

Great creative ideas deserve great research. But when ad research is overly rigid or rushed, it stops being helpful, and starts getting in the way. Learn how to avoid the 3 most common pitfalls in advertising research 👇 https://lnkd.in/g_gtP62k

A founder grade breakdown of how effective is advertising, why classic metrics mislead, and how to rebuild a measurement system that tracks true revenue impact. #Advertising https://lnkd.in/gebq2pkw

Traditional media often gets dismissed as “outdated.” But with the right strategy, it still delivers — especially when paired with a strong vanity phone number. A memorable number turns radio, print, TV, or outdoor ads into trackable lead generators. Instead of being forgotten, your message sticks, drives response, and even spreads by word of mouth. Vanity numbers improve recall, build instant clarity, and unify campaigns across every channel. In a crowded digital world, sometimes the smartest move is giving traditional media a modern edge.

The Billion-Dollar Marketing Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight Here's a surprising statistic: Nearly $35 billion in co-op advertising funds go unused every year. What are co-op advertising dollars? Co-op funds are money manufacturers set aside to share advertising costs with their retail partners. If you're carrying national brands, you've likely already earned these funds based on your inventory purchases. The opportunity: Only 15% of local advertisers currently participate in co-op advertising programs, yet the market represents a $42 billion opportunity. Businesses using co-op dollars can essentially double their advertising reach without doubling their spend. Why it matters: With effective optimization, pay-per-click advertising can yield $2 for every $1 spent — and that ROI gets even stronger when you're leveraging co-op funds you've already earned. Many businesses don't realize these programs exist or think they're too complex. The reality? Manufacturers allocate roughly $70 billion annually to fund co-op advertising — they want their partners to use it. If you're carrying national brands, there's a good chance you have co-op dollars waiting. Are you using yours?

“The only people who consume ads are the ones who can’t buy their way out of the experience. Advertising used to be shared culture—now it’s just a tax on attention.” Vanessa Toro named this recently, and I haven’t been able to let it go. For most of the twentieth century, advertising wasn’t just background noise—it was part of the cultural soundtrack. Think of Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” commercial in 1971, Apple’s “1984” during the Super Bowl, or the Budweiser frogs croaking on living room TVs across America. These weren’t simply ads; they became collective memory—shared jokes, jingles, slogans—threads of common language in a fractured world. That shared culture has vanished. Today, advertising is no longer something we all see. It is something that stratifies us. Those with means increasingly buy their way out of it: ad-free streaming, premium subscriptions, algorithmic filters, literal “skip” buttons. What used to be a collective experience is now a tax on attention, imposed most heavily on those who can’t afford to escape it. This shift matters not just economically but culturally. Advertising once acted as a unifying force, for better or worse. It told stories on a mass scale, gave us common points of reference, and reflected the values of the age—sometimes cynically, sometimes aspirationally. Its ubiquity made it unavoidable, and therefore, oddly communal. But when only some people see your story, advertising stops being culture. It becomes extraction. For brands, this is an existential tension. If the old bargain—attention in exchange for shared cultural participation—no longer holds, then what role do you play in people’s lives? What do you offer beyond interruption? The cultural question for brands isn’t just how to reach people, but why. If advertising has become a tax on attention, then the opportunity is to stop taxing and start contributing. To create something people would seek out, not pay to escape. To move from extracting attention to earning belonging. Because in a world where culture no longer flows through 30-second spots, brands that matter will be the ones that build culture, not just buy it. Attention is no longer the prize—it’s the price. Brands that forget this will be forgotten.

Are we really still debating this? 🧐 Too often last-click attribution is treated as the only reality in digital advertising. But it isn’t. What is real? - attention drives sales. - brand lift drives sales. - emotional storytelling builds salience – and salience drives sales. It’s also real that a large share of people never click on ads at all. If a TV remote had a ‘buy now’ button, would we really expect people to instantly purchase a car or insurance? Of course not. Yet digital advertising is still judged as if that’s exactly how people behave. That’s exactly why we focus on interactive advertising at Creative Upfront. When people swipe, scratch, drag, reveal, or play, they pay more attention, spend more time with the ad and its message, and build stronger emotional memories of the brand. It’s not about chasing clicks. It’s about aligning ads with how people actually use digital - because when people interact, they pay more attention, remember more, and buy more. So the real question is: are we still stuck in ROAS spreadsheets - or are we ready to build advertising people actually interact with?