No images? Click here #242/ Mar 28, 2021 COMMANDING THE ENTIRE AD ECONOMY Google, Facebook, and Amazon continue to increase their domination of the ad industry. This week The Wall Street Journal reported that the unholy trinity are now in "command of the entire advertising economy." According to research by Group M, these three companies now bag over half of all advertising dollars spent in the US -- not just online ad dollars, but all ad dollars. They also collect about 90% of online ad spending. This comes as marketers continue to take money out of long-term brand building and invest it in short-term listings and direct response style advertising -- the province of FB, GOOG and AMZN. The ad industry is turning into a giant electronic yellow pages. The unprecedented domination by these monoliths comes as a stark reminder of how astoundingly wrong marketing "experts" were when they told us that the web would democratize commerce and allow small companies to flourish by breaking the grip of huge corporations (the chart above is lifted from The Journal this week.) In the history of media, marketing, and advertising there has never been anything even approaching the kind of unencumbered power these three companies wield. Chickens Without Heads Meanwhile, online advertisers are running around in circles yabbering hysterically about policies that Google has announced which will limit the use of cookies and some forms of third party data. Google's actions are presumably in response to pressure from consumers and regulators to stop the hideous amount of tracking, "data" collection, and abuse of privacy that has been going on for years by online media, marketers, and advertisers. But, as you might suspect, once you dig into the details, Google's "commitment" to privacy ain't everything it's cracked up to be. According to Wired, it's mostly theater. Wired says, "While marketed as a step forward for consumer privacy, it does very little to change the underlying dynamics of an industry built on surveillance-based behavioral advertising." The belief that the online ad industry or online media are responsible or mature enough to get their disgusting surveillance practices under control is a delusion. As Wired says, "ultimately it’s going to be up to the government, not self-interested ad tech companies, to implement a regulatory framework that tackles the broad, collective dimensions of the digital privacy problem." Here's Your Proof The ad industry, in the form of all the major advertising trade associations, are fighting to undermine a proposed Florida law that would allow consumers to opt out of certain types of personally targeted advertising. The bill would allow consumers to sue and receive compensation for violations of their privacy rights. According to MediaPost, similar bills are being introduced in NY, NJ, WA, and OK. Of course, the 4As, the ANA, the IAB and all the other trade organizations oppose this just as they've opposed every other attempt to protect individual privacy rights. Bullshit Never Dies One of my all-time favorite bullshit companies, WeWork, is back in the news. Regular readers may remember a few years ago when I started writing about these guys. WeWork is a temporary office space rental company that tried to disguise itself as some kind of tech thing and go public before anyone realized what a joke the whole thing was. Their shenanigans were legendary. As I wrote when they briefly changed their name to the "We Company" a few years ago..."The We Company has taken brand purpose to new and thrilling levels of pomposity. They have modestly defined their purpose as...you ready?... 'Elevate The World's Consciousness.' As the great Philip Marlowe once said, "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter." (By the way, it was Sam Spade, not Philip Marlowe. Typical blogweasel accuracy.) After being found out as major con job, WeWork's IPO went sidewise quick. Now they're back at it. They're looking to go public at a valuation of $9 billion. Last year they lost $3.2 billion. The year before they lost $3.5 billion. Sounds like a great deal. Accept And Save? Very funny and sadly true. This wonderful video captures the essence of how online media screw with our minds everywhere we go. Self-Promotion Center Welcome to the self-promotion center where obnoxious chest-pounding meets venal propaganda. In today's exciting episode we highlight two feature articles that ran this week focused on the intemperate ravings of your favorite blogweasel. First one comes to us courtesy of MarketingWeek. It's an article about the talk I did at the Festival of Marketing earlier in the week. The piece got a few of my quotes wrong, but does a good job generally of conveying my message. The second piece comes from website The Financial Brand, and features some thoughts about marketing for financial institutions -- a subject about which I know nothing. Which, of course, has never stopped me from having an opinion. Apologies. Got a lot of nice emails following last week's newsletter "The Road To Reality." Haven't had a chance to answer them all. Will try to answer this week. |