didn’t realise you were such a digital native

@Julian

Great insights, ideas and links. Liked your blog too.

I am a big fan of Seth Godin as well – just going through ‘Small is the New Big’ which is a great read.

Maybe I am getting hung up on semantics but the view I would take is that all the other methods you have both described are forms of advertising. It’s just that they are below the line.

I think a possible take-out is that buying paid advertising is a way to short-cut the process of building genuine customer connection. And we all know what happens when we try to take shortcuts.

Does remind me of that great quote by John Wanamaker

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_Wanamaker/

re: “I am wondering though why you think there will be an eventual discovery that online advertising *doesn’t work*.”

- We know this now. It’s sad I know, but many of us have been tracking advertising results for many years and there is a decline in the effectiveness of on and offline advertising.

There’s always exceptions and some people who it works for, but they are the minority.

It’s really not worth advertising much these days online – You can get all the traffic you need for free through discussions, social media, chat, blogging, SEO, PR, article syndication, and many other techniques.

For example, I know a mechanic in Christchurch who said traditional paid advertising doesn’t work for them, so he put a cool car on Trademe at a high price to sell it. The price is high enough that nobody will purchase it, but the car is cool enough that heaps of people want to check it out. His business details are the contact details, so he gets a truckload of work leads every month. Meanwhile the car stays up for sale, and if he does sell it for the high price – he’s happy anyway!

So basically ongoing free advertising!

Let’s get creative people, just because advertising doesn’t work, doesn’t mean we can’t use cheap or free web marketing methods like this – We just need to think a little harder (a good thing).

Here’s a few related posts about some of our stories re: marketing:
http://snurl.com/3uk1f [Best Marketing is Free]
http://snurl.com/3uk1o [Google Adword Pitfalls]

PS: EVERY online business should read the ‘Purple Cow” by Seth Godin. It’s absolutely on the money. If you don’t read it you’re uninformed.
http://snurl.com/3ujh0 [www_fishpond_co_nz]

1) I’m something of an outlier. No TV, fully self-informed consumer on the odd occasions that I consume and kind of impervious to marketing – so from that perspective for me advertising doesn’t work

2) Even though Google is very targeted, in comparison to old school advertising – I believe it’s the tip of the iceberg in terms of how far we could go with true “personal intention” type stuff. To that end I believe a significant proportion of advertising as we know will be rendered unnecessary

But I could be totally wrong….

It’s a sad reflection of our increasingly consumer and convenience driven society , which highly values escapism, that this type of thing gets a heap of usage. Its also reflected in the online properties that used to be based on reasonably insightful journalism. .Most of the Editor’s picks on sites like stuff.co.nz are now things based on ‘Entertainment’. That’s what a large chunk of our population consider as news.

I am wondering though why you think there will be an eventual discovery that online advertising *doesn’t work*.

Do you mean doesn’t work as in other forms of advertising are more effective, or doesn’t work as in it doesn’t fit with the web as a medium, or doesn’t work as in all advertising in all media doesn’t really work?

I am asking this as a sincere question – it’s the first time I have heard this and depending on the evidence it would seriously shape what my next business venture looks like:)

Amen to that Ben.