Advertising agencies must go. It's a wish that I -- and quite possibly a few million others -- have long held on to
Advertising agencies must go. It's a wish that I -- and quite possibly a few million others -- have long held on to. It is born of sadness at the sheer ineptitude that passes for campaigns in India. There are exceptions,
obviously, but the norm often tends to be expensive fluff. Add to this semi-literate copywriters, easily conned marketing managers, and you get ads that make no sense to the most important bunch -- us, the consumers.
The Internet may rectify this at some point. Salvation may lie in crowdsourcing. Tasks often performed by the incompetent can now be outsourced to a group of competent folk anywhere on earth.
A number of companies now do it regularly. They save much money, and find happiness in the form of great work.
As for the usual arguments about understanding a market, these no longer hold water in an age when
cultural nuances can be dissected on a Google spreadsheet. Oh, and that 'advertising professionals know best' tripe belongs to a time when Samantha Fox was a pin-up star.
Take Brandsupply (.nl), the Dutch marketplace for graphic design based on crowdsourcing. It simply connects companies and designers. When I last checked, both groups seemed happy. Or, DesignCrowd (.com) and its
'virtual team' of 19,164u00a0 designers from around the world, which receives 50+ designs for the average project announced.
Apply this to everything from idea to strategy and execution, and you have what your agency can never offer: a large number of options, at a price that actually offers value.
If much of this sounds laughable, consider this: at the American Super Bowl in February this year (called the most-watched TV programme ever), two of the top five ads shown were reportedly crowdsourced.
This much I know: If I ever launch a company, I'm crowdsourcing my advertising needs. I'd rather pay a decent sum to someone good than an obnoxious amount to a bunch of clowns.
-- Lindsay Pereira is Editor, MiD DAY Online (twitter.com/lindsaypereira)
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