Is Advertising “So Over” for Hyperconnected Consumers?

Mobility has made it difficult for marketers to get the attention of consumers.

Image: iStockphoto

Plugged into smartphones and tablets at all times, consumers have their own roving command centers for their lives. For some analysts, that means the end of advertising as those in the industry know it. But for one well-known futurist, that means the ad business' total demise.

Faith Popcorn, founder and CEO of Faith Popcorn’s Brain Reserve, pulled no punches about what she thought the arrival of the “hyperconnected consumer” meant at OMMA Global New York in New York today.

“Advertising, we say, is so over,” Popcorn said. “If the consumer believes you’re paying for their time, they don’t really believe in it. They want to believe that [a product or service] has just dropped into the culture.”

Since consumers are connected to their mobile devices at all times, it also means that those who would rather shield their identities from marketers won’t be able to. “If you’re worried about privacy, you should be, because that’s over. Gone,” Popcorn said.

Another panelist, Paul Isakson, director of strategy at advertising agency Colle+McVoy, who smiled at Popcorn’s pronouncements, said that his chosen field would continue to exist.

“It’s always going to be around, it’s just not going to be what it was,” he said, adding that even old-fashioned advertising sandwich boards still appear on the street. “Now, you need to add more value.”

Part of doing that involved mobile platforms. He points to a partnership between American Express and Foursquare, which offers discounts to those who check into various business establishments and, more recently, travel promotions, as one example.

Another panelist, Sheryl Connelly, manager of global trends and futuring at Ford Motor Co., said in an era of social media, hers and other companies have to face the fact that branding is no longer something they alone can control.

“Consumers are much more inclined to scrutinize their worlds and figure out what’s important,” she said, describing the impact of "information addiction” among consumers.

Social media has meant that “you no longer own your brand,” Connelly says. To take on the “hyperconnected” consumer, Ford has capitalized on the need to be connected with Sync, a cloud-based service that gives drivers voice-activated directions, GPS technology, and map and traffic data. Knowing that motorists are taking phone calls and often texting while at the wheel, the company adapted to consumers’ wishes.

“We think it’s the safest way to keep you eyes on the road and hands on the wheel,” Connelly said.

The one thing that has knocked old-school marketers for a loop, it seems, is that the way people now communicate and obtain information has splintered in so many different directions. And, the experts agreed, that’s rarely face to face or voice to voice.

“They don’t want to talk, they want to text,” Popcorn said of the younger generation. “There’s going to be a whole psychiatric practice about this.”

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