John Ambrose Fleming was a professor of electrical engineering and expert in the amplification and distribution of electrical power. In 1899 he was hired by Marconi’s Wireless Telegraphy Co. as Scientific Advisor. After a successful test transmission of radio waves including messages in English and French from a tower to a receiving station 30 miles away, Fleming sent a letter to The Times of London describing the experiment. “When it is realized that these visible dots and dashes are the result of trains of intermingled electric waves rushing with the speed of light across the intervening 30 miles, caught on one and the same short aerial wire and disentangled and sorted out automatically by the two machines into intelligible messages in different languages, the wonder of it all cannot but strike the mind”. You see, in 1890 (when the test was conducted) Radio was barley in its infancy and drawing forth the mystical phenomena of electricity and magnetism was, believe it or not, more mind blowing than the advent of the internet. The vast marketing commercialization of Radio came later, but just imagine for a moment if a Radio Ad Sales representative had evoked the technology that was behind the medium as proof of its effectiveness? “Be not wary of wireless. Indeed the shock required to charge a coil is quite severe, but is necessary none the less to generate the proper voltage for the mechanism to convey electric waves through the ether in order to disseminate your brands message to the waiting masses”. Marketers would be mesmerized! But by focusing on the wizardry of the tech, a broader conversation about the message would be shut down.
Today, we focus on inputs, outputs and marvel at Programmatic Advertising. We talk about DSP’s, SSP’s and ad exchanges. Root systems, nested logic regression, algorithms and data taxonomy. Dynamic ad insertion, real time bidding, dashboards and efficient workflows. A global apparatus that has every digital device wired to AdTech software on one end and retinas on the other. We’ve regressed in the sense that the more complex advertising has become, the more basic questions we ask; What’s an impression? Will my ad be seen? What content will it air against?
Advertising does not work in predictable ways, because advertising is viewed by humans and humans are incomprehensible. We bipeds are in constant flux when it comes to our behaviors and preferences. We are as different from one another as we are different from ourselves given our moods, situations, environmental factors and whims. So called Signal Planning therefore is like trying to hit a moving target with a catapult. Using new technology is not in itself a strategy. Demography does not equal destiny and tracking will never trump persuasion. When it comes to a great ad, nothing can replace creativity. There is a collective consciousness to be shaped and a shared reality to be created.
All the electromagnetism in the galaxy can’t do that alone…
