Look at any report of online marketing spend growth compared to traditional media, and there are your numbers right there.

http://www.marketingvox.com/execs_unhappy_with_marketing_moving_spend_online-022016/
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/study-conversational-marketing-to-become-the-mainstream-by-2012-2065/

Not to mention SEM spend has reached over $12 Billion for 2007. Studies show that people trust organic results in search over paid 10 to 1… This is a trend that has and will continue to grow. The numbers prove it.

While wisdom is no doubt valuable, and you sound older than me (although it doesn’t sound like twice my age) I would advise to be careful not to get clouded judgement. Because people have said that traditional methods of advertising were on their way out before (hell at one point people thought that having a “brand” was dead, generics were going to win), doesn’t mean that it is not the case and that it simply has not come true yet. The for sight to see where trends and changes occur before they do can mean the success or failure of a business (especially in one that changes as fast as yours, which I assume is web development NOT advertising).

But my prediction is that when content becomes the replacement to advertising most of the big agencies will be out of business, and replaced by the ones who are already doing this type of advertising like critical mass, crayon, MS&L, etc. Having been a part of two large, “traditional” agencies and see their struggle I can say that it is all eminent. All but a few simply have not reacted fast enough, and are too set in their ways and are losing business because of it. Lots of them are laying people off, and all new hires are expected to know and understand the interactive, social, and content space.

I welcome further discussion, hopefully on topic. Age and spelling don’t really have anything to do with content vs push messaging.

People don’t have to chose what type of advertising they pay attention, they now have the very real ability consciously or subconsciously ignore it all. Are you suggesting that people are choosing to watch advertisements when they have the option of ignoring them simply because it is familiar?? Hardly seems realistic.

Don’t forget that we are having a shifting of generations, as Gen Y and Millennials get older and command more buying power it will become more dramatic. These are the very people who hare already engrossed in the medias that encourage ad blindness.

To assume the industry won’t change when it has changed so dramatically in the last 5 years would be to assume that humans as a species don’t change. Obviously this is not the case.

But this has been a wonderful conversation disagreement or not, thanks for the response.

BlogFire the company could have run a 30 second commercial that you saw, disagreed with, maybe you would have visited our website, and then left. We would be none the wiser, you would not be engaged.

Instead you chose to participate, put a level of involvement and opinion into our outreach. Like it or not you are much more engaged than had we sent you the same message in between your favorite TV shows. You are much more likely to remember this site, this blog, this company.

We also learned valuable information, that some people are not ready or do not believe that advertising is on it’s way out (even if it is not in the near future). We also learned that people in the industry don’t trust people who claim to “get it.” We can make a decision to alter our copy, or keep it as is for the reasons we originally wrote it as such.

So after all that, can you tell me how the 30 second spot is not arcane and outdated? It may not go away in the next six months, but it is a matter of time. Cheers!