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When you Google the phrase amp8220half my advertising is wastedamp8221 you get about 21700000 results showing that even in the age of Internet advertising this amp8220wasteamp8221 is vividly realEvery time the quote is trotted out at an industry event half the audience groans while the other half giggles nervously eyes down averting contact It is unclear if this reaction comes from those who are ashamed to be caught at an advertising conference or from a belief that the 50 percent figure is ridiculously low or ridiculously high What seems to be acknowledged though is the belief that advertising is an unaccountable cost of business Unaccountable is not a good place to be in an era that worships increased shareholder valueWhy does the industry do little to prove John Wanamaker or Lord Leverhulme wrongImagine any other profession and I use the term advisedly tolerating the belief that half of its effort is wasted Who would work with an accountant who files tax returns that are right only half the time Who would work with a lawyer who loses half of his cases Who would seek out a doctor whose diagnostic hitrate is only 50 percent rightThe advertising industry loves to perpetuate the myth that half of its spend is wasted amp8212 and thatamp8217s just how it is you canamp8217t win all the time Is the click real or fraudulent Human or bot Who cares Itamp8217s a flip of a coin heads or tails wasted or not Itamp8217s the 50 percent ruleResearchers Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart tackled the myth directly in 2006 publishing their book What Sticks Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds After examining more than 1 billion of marketing spend for one million consumers by 30 major corporations they discovered that the marketing spend in question had an overall effectiveness rate of no more than 37 percentIf marketers said amp822063 percent of my adverting spend is wastedamp8221 this would not have quite the same ring as John Wanamakeramp8217s 50 percent phrase but it would be more accurate Briggs and Stuart figured out why nearly twothirds of marketing expenditures were wasted concluding that the waste came from a poor understanding of consumer motivations coupled with inaccurate messaging delivered with an inappropriate media mix Bingo Target missedThis is worse than the flip of a coin Getting consumer motivations wrong is a serious problem So is inaccurate messaging So is an inappropriate media mix If this is the best that marketing can do itamp8217s a sad commentary on the professionalism of its marketing practitionersThe Briggs and Stuart results were from 2006 roughly in line with when marketers pivoted to deal with the challenges of digital and social marketing Digital and social challenges added complexity and may have distracted marketers from correcting the underlying consumer messaging and media mix mistakes that Briggs and Stuart identified Digital and social adds fraud to waste levels Recent analyses show fraud levels of 23 percent for social display ads and 31 percent for news video ads on iPhones Fraud levels increase waste levels above the original 63 percent level Briggs and Stuart calculatedFifty years of Marketing Effectiveness Awards from various organizations demonstrate that advertisers and their agencies have an interest in becoming more effective and we have recently seen an increased desire among marketers to drive brand growth for their organizations This is both good and importantEqually important then is the need to be more honest and to declare that Wanamaker and Lord Leverhulme were hopeless optimists who left us with the unrealistic belief that we were wasting only 50 percent of our marketing spendAn updated version of Wanamakeramp8217s phrase is now requiredamp8220Nearly twothirds of our advertising spend is wasted amp8212 and we are diligently trying to fix itamp8221Click the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Which Half of my Advertising is Wasted — and It Is Only Half?

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Darren Woolley

The Ad Council and Dollar General Literacy Foundation Celebrate 15 Years of Promoting Adult Education - Ad Council InSites

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Which Half of my Advertising is Wasted — and It Is Only Half?

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Darren Woolley

The Ad Council and Dollar General Literacy Foundation Celebrate 15 Years of Promoting Adult Education - Ad Council InSites

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