Exclamation Point Marketing!!!!!??

Is it just me or has the marketing profession has lost something in the past few years? Lately it seems to me that hype, promotion and volume have replaced cleverness, innovation and values.

Maybe it was too much Billy Mays yelling at me & now Sully, his smarmy Pitchmen buddy; maybe it is the current US obsession with tabloid journalism and personal desire for celebrity; possibly another casualty of the Wal-Mart effect. I could blame the Internet, video gaming, mobile content, maybe even El Nino. Safe to say, I haven’t determined the root cause, but I do know that brand marketing has lost a bit of luster recently.

Being a brand sensitive individual and one who was raised in the industry to develop, nurture and evangelize the value and critical importance of brands, I must say sometimes I feel a bit lost. We see brand extension after brand extension. Companies that have built great brands and good businesses like Di Giorno sold off for logistics reasons, not marketing issues.

Where, oh where is the customer in all this? It often appears that we have lost sight of their needs, desires and hopes. Or are we just determined to sell them stuff; at low prices? in massive quantities? Maybe that’s what they want and I don’t know it.

I, like so many, look forward to the Super Bowl coming, as much for the half-time entertainment, football and the commercials. This annual seminal moment in TV advertising is analyzed nearly as much as the X’s and O’s. Who is in, who’s out, how much are they spending.

What amazes me about Super Bowl ads (and now advertising in general) is how little the ads even talk about the product, if at all. I wonder if Danica Patrick even knows or cares about what Go Daddy does? More importantly, how many viewers even care. No doubt many young men find out they are a domain listing service, very few who have their own website.

One might excuse Go Daddy, but when such respected marketers as Budweiser airing ads that are never linked to the product, in any way, it hurts. If advertising is merely an attempt to entertain the audience, how effective can it be in shaping image or building awareness, trial and preference? Is it that marketers are just being lazy? Or going for the low hanging fruit? Or are consumers not demanding enough of the brands they upon which they spend?

My experience from 15 years of advertising tells me that some of the brightest and ambitious people - smart, clever, curious, insightful and driven- work in the field of advertising. They cannot be proud of some of the work out there. Advertising can be entertaining AND smart, strategic and on message. The current E*Trade campaign is spot on; funny, resonates with audiences; campaignable and flexible across media, including viral.

It can be done, but it takes a client that demands GREAT work and won’t settle for less!!!