Alain Thys (Future Lab): “The classic mass advertising model is inefficient and outdated”

Do you remember the soap opera’s in the early days of TV: sponsored by Tide, Gillette or Procter & Gamble. At the time, brands used to link their image to specific entertainment or news production. No commercials interruptions. No interferences (normally) in the script of the program. “To some extend, we should come back to this kind of model, argues Alain Thys, co-founder of Future Lab, a consulting firm in strategic marketing. Classic advertising formats as the 30 seconds TV spot or broadsheet newspaper commercials are outdated. They don’t target the right audience. They  cost a lot of money. Worst, they irritate the customer rather than engage him or her”.

The marketing sector has become an industry based upon the “shout and sell” model. For ages, they hunt flies with a bazooka. Most of the time, they miss the target. They put noise all around without any consideration for context or value added content. “Should these marketing agencies listen to their customers, they would never air this kind of commercials. Sure, every commercials are not useless. But you can cut the marketing budget of many brands by 50% without having any negative impact on the sales”, thinks Alain Thys.

The advertising sector seems like one of these many industries stuck in a legacy model, with many player willing to protect the cozy and profitable position they conquered in a due scheme. Are they in the same situation as jostled industries like music, airline or press ? Could be… But they don’t seem to be aware of it. Marketing industry keeps flooding its peers with creative award. “Though, what would make sense would be a “customer” award for them, adds Alain Thys, demonstrating the relevancy of the delivered message rather than its shine.”

Anywayn, Web 2.0 applications or services like “behavioural” Adsense from Google could soon bring more change in the sector, can we assume.

Here is the video interview of Alain Thys (thanks to Hotel Marriott Brussels)

And find here a presentation regarding the future of the advertising industry, according to Future Lab