I hate adverts
Industry addiction to ads is set to add (sic) 15-20% to the cost of what you buy. Just wow!
I’ve never understood brands’ addiction to advertising and yet the ad industry is one that seems almost, but not quite impervious to economic conditions.
I recently read a report
that says:
The trials and tribulations of recent years look to be firmly in the rearview mirror at last with a new media-centric report from Magna Advertising suggesting that global advertising will grow 14% to hit $657bn in 2021.
The dramatic turnaround in fortunes follows a 2.5% contraction last year and represents an all-time high growth rate, albeit with the expectation that advertisers will cool their jets considerably in 2022 when growth is likely to be a more leisurely 7%.
Assuming the prediction comes true then that makes the ad market the equivalent of the world’s 21st largest country as ranked by GDP
ahead of Poland, Taiwan and Sweden and not far behind Switzerland.
Think about that for a moment. Now ponder this: The Information reports in a story about Amazon’s ad revenue that:
Consumer brands and third-party sellers saw the cost per click of sponsored product ads on Amazon average $1.22 in the second quarter, up from 90 cents at the start of the Covid-19 shutdowns, according to data from Pacvue.
The report goes on to say that the so-called ‘sweet spot’ cost of advertising now represents 15-20% of revenue versus a past figure of 10% but the ROI on ads has fallen by as much as 26%. Compound that up and is it any surprise to imagine significant price inflation around the corner?
The more important question has to be: why does business continue to fuel the ad industry?
I’m sure smart people will have plenty to say about brand awareness etc but for me and many of my contemporaries, ads are an annoying intrusion into our lives. What’s worse in an age of the FATI’s - Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and Instagram - there’s no easy way to get away from the damned things unless you do as I did and delete one or all of those accounts. At least when ads come on the TV we can walk away or flip the page of dead tree tech.
Equally worrying is the concentration of power represented by the digital behemoths. After all, when you are effectively paying for Jeff Bezos’ dalliance with space travel while the rest of the planet burns, don’t you get just a tad pissed off? I do.
Having said all that there are always those rare exceptions. Like the dopey rant that resulted in a blazingly successful and free RNLI fund raising campaign.