New Ad Technologies Are Amazing, But Strategy and Personality Are Better

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Luddite. 

Like most people, my flabber is regularly gasted by tech. Take Apple’s Vision Pro. 

If that hasn’t blown your mind already, then remember that this is only V1. Imagine V5, which will be on us in no time. A few days ago, I saw the post doing the rounds on LinkedIn, showing how AI can turn a simple still image into utterly believable video, saying (or singing) whatever you like. And if it can make a 31-year-dead Audrey Hepburn sing Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’, then pretty soon Elvis will be telling you which oat milk is his favourite and Kim Jong Un will be singing about Shake ‘n Vac. 

The tech that advertising can use is amazing. But has advertising become too distracted by all the new toys?

Recently, most of the big agency networks have announced vast investments in tech. Which will no doubt be followed shortly by some much more discreet admissions of redundancies, but that’s not my point. Progress is progress, and if anything makes things more efficient and better, then business is business. But here’s the problem. Efficiency and improvement don’t always come as a set.

While the online display and social media platforms have obviously made it easier to stick advertising in front of people, everyone knows that most of it has dumbed right down to ‘Hey, this exists!’. Which, in my book isn’t even advertising. It’s just publicity. 

Technology’s also providing incredible data. And any business would be mad to ignore data (as long as it’s the right data). 

So when you have the enormity of online media space opportunity, with the invaluable insight of data, and then along comes the virtually self-generating messaging capabilities of AI, for writing copy, creating images and even video, it all looks like huge progress, right? 

Hmmm. Why does the advertising industry seem to be on the back foot then? Why are clients still continuing to cut fees? Or cutting out agencies altogether and just doing it themselves? Why are ad blockers on the rise? And why is the industry that people used to fight tooth and nail to get into now struggling to attract the best talent? 

Is it because advertising has let tech do all the work? 

Are big data, omnipresent media and AI supplanting the perceptive strategies and captivating creative that made advertising so widely enjoyed, admired and valued? Because if they are, then it’s crazy. 

On its own, data will never point to another ‘Good things come to those who wait.’ And no amount of AI sorcery will get to another ‘Surfer’.

From both sides of the equation – the advertising industry and every business that needs to connect with their audience – digital display isn’t the answer, nor are Insta, geo-tagging, programmatic, ChatGPT or Midjourney. They can all help. But without the right core thought behind your message and the most compelling way to express it, then you can’t really expect anyone to notice it or respond to it.

Every business can benefit and grow with good advertising. Fact. But advertising without a great positioning strategy won’t be good advertising. It’ll just be ‘Hey, this exists’. 

A great positioning strategy, brand platform, organising thought, or whatever else you want to call it, gives the thing that you want to advertise its value. It’s the difference between your potential customer being glad they were interrupted or just being annoyed. And guess how much good ‘annoyed’ does for your business. The right core thought gives you a competitive advantage and, quite often, one that can stay competitive for years. Just ask Nike, Dove and Patek Philippe.

And alongside the right chore thought, advertising that successfully courts people’s attention will always work harder. The best advertising creative is what defines a brand’s personality and protects it. There’s hardly a business in the world that isn’t all over social media, using lots of data and dabbling with AI. But unless it shows up with the right personality and attitude, unless it charms or amuses or surprises people, it will always struggle to connect. The way that any brand presents itself, speaks and behaves is how consumers decide which brands they like. And which brands they buy.

So while advertising should of course continue to embrace the new toys of technology, I just hope that enough advertising agencies and client businesses don’t forget to keep hugging the fundamental bases of all of the most popular and effective advertising. Because that’s how advertising can continue to be popular and effective.

You could use AI to turn a photograph of arguably the best agency founder and creative director ever, David Abbott, into a video of him saying anything you like. That would be easy now. Data could tell you what he should talk about. And ChatGPT could write it. But David Abbott would have written it better.