Z.E.R.O.: Zero Paid Media as the New Marketing Model

CHAPTER7

The Creative Case

In a previous chapter, I outlined a more ephemeral argument against paid media from a strategic perspective. You can break it down to two core components, namely, tactics over strategy and the disproportionate delivery against the traditional funnel in favor of awareness above all else.

What about the creative argument? Forget the medium; what about the message? Surely, it stands to reason that great advertising will always prevail and shine through, right? After all, the networks air The Year's Best Commercials and Best Commercials of All Time specials, don't they (no conflict of interest here)? The Super Bowl is all about the advertising, so says NBC's The Professionals, led by ex-ad man Donny Deutsch, who eagerly comments on the best and worst commercials like Joan Rivers does about Oscar fashion on the red carpet. We all talk about the VW commercial from Super Bowl 2012 where a small boy dressed as Darth Vader uses the force to start his dad's VW (actually, he used the remote starter, which apparently is an important selling point for fathers who have sons who want to be Darth Vader when they grow up). So how many VWs sold that year? And assuming you even recall the ad was for VW, do you remember which model? (Crickets. . .)

“Advertising is a tax paid for being unremarkable.^*” If that is true, then this tax is rising fast, which is good news for the government—not to mention production companies, media sellers, and agencies—but bad news for you.