Here is an updated 2019 version of this talk with video and a new presentation deck.

Today, I had the honor of speaking in Helsinki. Here is the video along with notes and an example deck for this talk.

The Biggest Lies That Get in the Way of Creative Campaigns

TV and radio are dead. People want to have relationships with brands on social media. Big Data is the future of marketing, not creativity. Content is king. Even though we work in marketing, too many of us are surprisingly susceptible to companies who are selling us bullshit like this.

Some think we should not do creative campaigns because TV, print, and radio are head. Here are the neutral numbers (TV) (radio).

I’ll include numbers from various places. First, here are Nielsen numbers from all 18+ people in the US. More than half of all media consumed every year is on TV and radio.

ComScore’s breakdown of people who use alternatives to broadcast TV show that only 15% are streaming-only. Most people use VOD and streaming to supplement and not replace broadcast or cable TV.

ThinkBox in the UK found that live TV viewing has not really declined over 10 years despite the rise of the Internet, social media, and streaming options.

Amazon Prime is streaming live American football games. The total average audience was 15 million. 97% (14.6 million) watched on live TV. 2% (372,000) saw it on Amazon. Yes, TV is surely dead.

We have got Spotify, on-demand music, and more. So, who actually listens to live radio? Everyone. This UK data shows that live radio is the the best audio channel by far to reach anyone of any age.

Where do most people get their news? Online news outlets? TV? Facebook? (God, I hope not.) No, it’s radio. Radio is more and more popular for news, and the percentage in increasing. Increasing. It’s far more popular than broadcast and cable TV.

Nielsen also found that 66% of people discover new music over some form of live radio (radio, radio apps, or online broadcasting). But with all of this information readily available — it’s not a secret — why do so many marketers falsely believe TV and radio are dead? More on that later.

The next big lie is that Big Data is the future. Essentially, Big Data is used to deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time. But that’s just a new form of direct marketing. And AI is the dream of direct marketing. See this clip from the film “Minority Report” in 2002.

Now, a lot of marketers probably watched that and thought, “Wow! When can we do that?” But remember: The 99.9% of people who are not marketers saw Tom Cruise getting scanned for ads and were horrified. Remember, the world in Minority Report is a dystopia. The ads in that world is about as real as Tom Cruise’s marriages.

People hate direct marketing. And they REALLY hate online direct marketing. It’s why Big Data is not some miracle sent by the marketing gods. At best, you’re collecting personal data. At worst, your using private data and annoying the people you’re getting it from.

We’ve had online ads for 25 years, but what really drove people crazy was direct marketing through retargeting. Google. People hate retargeting so much that they finally looked for ways to block ads. In other words, if anyone here has done retargeting, you’re the reason that we have ad blocking.

Now, ad blocking is increasing every year. Globally, 7% of people block ads. In Finland, 23% of people do it.

And ad blocking will affect more than ads. It will stop ALL martech and adtech such as the twenty-three trackers that pop up when you visit TechCrunch. VPNs transmit fake data. Apple will only let tracking cookies exist for one day.

Because of all of this, we cannot depend on data. But here’s the real problem.

The EU GDPR regulation will eliminate all non-consensual tracking. In other words, marketers cannot collect any data unless people allow it. And if someone catches you breaking the rules, here are the fines.

A reporter in UK asked Tinder for her data. She got 800 pages! From Tinder. Imagine how much Google and Tinder have on us.

Google and Facebook have tracking on 75% and 25% of the Internet. But Big Data depends on consumers opting into or not opting out of supplying their personal information. That will not continue.

Data not a competitive advantage but a way to keep even like in A/B testing. Creativity will be the advantage. Big Data is a lie; creativity is still the future.

Brand love on social media is a claim that is made by countless people selling social media — and they do so without any evidence in support.

Marketers believed it because we are not normal. We love social media. Most people are just “eh.” LinkedIn – 93% to 14%. Twitter – 81% to 22%. Buzzfeed – 43% to 13%. Go through your own social media and see how many interactions are with brands. Ask someone in a supermarket if they want to have a relationship with the brands in his or her shopping cart.

We are on social media all the time, so we assume that everyone else is too. We assume that social media is a great medium for marketing. But 49% in Germany use the Internet but not social media. 40% in Greece use neither. Social media is not some magic button to generate sales. Here’s why.

When you go through what people follow on social media, you see that brand advertising is as effective as Kendall Jenner giving a Pepsi to police officers at a protest. People use social media to connect with other people, not brands. Just because a medium is popular does not mean it is effective for marketing.

“Content marketing” through blog posts is all the rage. But compare blog spam to advertorials.

Definitions exist for a reason. The marketing industry has precise terminologies for a reason. If a word means everything, it means nothing interesting or useful. In other words.

“Content marketing” is “marketing communications.” Anyone who uses the word “content” is not thinking precisely. Fairy dust. Any time you use the word “content,” there is always a better word to use. If you do marcom, it’s always assumed that you creating collateral.

Anyone who says that some channel or tactic is always the answer is selling something.

Every tactic plays a role. Advertising builds brands. Publicity can build awareness and trust. SEO builds an informational presence in Google. Direct marketing gets trackable results.

But as I hope you’ve seen today, not every channel is best for any given tactic.

TV, radio, and print will remain the best mediums for brand building, creative campaigns, advertising, and publicity.  The Internet will focus on direct marketing.

Different mediums are best for different purposes. Social media not for brand advertising or creative campaigns but for PR activities such as community relations because it’s way for people to interact with people.

Too many marketers don’t even know what they want to do. They do not have marketing educations and believe what bullshit con artists are selling.