With the daily increase in ads that I see and the news of NBC locking up over $1 billion in ad revenue for the Olympics, it got me thinking -- is advertising worth it?
Many ad campaigns have generated a considerable amount of public appeal, but they fail to do the one thing they are supposed to: increase sales.
Some notable campaigns:
- Got Milk campaign. Hugely popular and famous campaign. Did milk sales increase? Nope. They continued to fall year after year since the campaign.
- Yo quiero Taco Bell. Remember that campaign with the dog? Massively popular and parodied, but it didn't increase sales. The agency behind the ad campaign was also fired.
- Whassup? Arguably one of the most popular ad campaigns in the last 20 years, but sales of Budweiser have been declining steadily. They went from 50 million barrels in 1990 to less than 35 million in 2000. Bud Light has been doing well without the Whaasup campaign.
I'm not saying that advertising is never effective, but I believe it is widely overspent and often irresponsibly. Advertising should be used to defend a brand and keep it relevant.
PR should be used to build the brand. Often times companies try to build a brand/product through advertising alone.
More thoughts on this to come. For a more in-depth look at advertising and PR, check out this great book.