Advertising “In Structural Decline”: NYU’s Scott Galloway

Advertising “In Structural Decline”: NYU’s Scott Galloway

As new technologies change the way companies interact with customers, NYU Stern marketing professor Scott Galloway has predicted advertising’s death as the value chain upon which brands are built is reshaped, and capital re-allocates from traditional media into product innovation, discovery and distribution.

In arguably the best presentation at Cannes this year, Galloway stated – a belief he has since repeated – that the sun has passed midday on the role of traditional brand as a function of broadcast media.

He said the traditional channel-customer relationship managed by a push approach in communication, where an average product with great advertising was the brand building algorithm, is over.

“Simply put you want to be a builder, not a brander – great products breakthrough,” Galloway said.

“It is not that brands do not matter – it is they just don’t matter as much.”

According to Galloway, traditional brands as we know them are declining in value due to digital “diligence tools”.

He said the tools of product discovery have turned from broadcast to Amazon, TripAdvisor, social media and search, and therefore consumers now no longer need to defer to a brand.

“Their favourite brand is going to be whatever Google tells them at that moment it matches their exact needs,” Galloway said.

In fact, the percentage of consumers that can identify their favourite brand across key categories has declined by somewhere between 30 and 50 per cent, Galloway added.

Consequently, the traditional media industry is on the wrong end of this change in consumer diligence, and TV specifically is ripe for disruption, he said.

Galloway noted that TV has raised its prices faster than inflation but with no underlying increase in productivity, innovation or effectiveness.

“There are going to be more people with Amazon Prime subscriptions than cable in the US in seven years’ time,” he said.

“The people who are cutting cords are young and wealthy, so effectively they are exiting the platforms where they can be exposed to traditional marketing.”

Galloway said innovation, as well as the young and rich, are going to non-ad-supported programming where the storytelling is not interrupted by ads.

He said that these over-the-top platforms are growing 30 per cent year-on-year, while all the ad-supported media is in decline.

“You pay a price to effectively exit the advertising ecosystem,” he said.

“I think advertising has become a tax that only the poor and technologically illiterate pay.

“Anyone with any money is going to have the technology and the ability to start avoiding most advertising out there.

“Advertising is not a great business – it is in structural decline.”

Galloway predicts this will put a strain on advertising industrial complex as capital re-allocates from traditional advertising into product innovation, and also into direct-to-consumer retail.

He noted that Apple spent almost 50 per cent less of its revenue on advertising, compared to Samsung, who dominates digital advertising and has chosen to re-allocate its capital into stores.

“Samsung may come out with a better product in the next few months, but it will take them about ten years to match the brand of Apple,” he said.

“Apple has taken about $4 billion in a year and allocated it into 450 retail stores such that no matter how cool Samsung’s VR is, it is never going to match the brand capital that Apple has invested in their unbelievable purchase temples to the brand that Apple calls their stores.

“But with Samsung, you are still going to have to walk into a Verizon or AT&T store and talk to someone with a name badge on who does not really know how to sell the product.

“Apple’s core competitive killer product is not their iPhone – it is their stores, and they are the most productive retail stores in the world.”

Galloway said retail stores dying and going out of business is a myth.

“That is bullshit,” he said.

“The middle class are dying. Stores in wealthy neighbourhoods are doing just fine.

“Show me a middle-class neighbourhood, and I will show you all businesses are going out of business, including stores.

“General Growth Properties and Simon [Property Group] are the largest mall developers in the US. Moreover, their stocks are at an all-time high. Why? Because they own malls where rich people live.”

Galloway said the brands that are doing well, with the most visibility, are those that re-allocate capital from broadcast advertising into product innovation, innovative product discovery and distribution.

“How much does Tesla spend on traditional advertising? Zero,” he said.

“The big idea in the auto industry 20 to 30 years ago was ‘let’s have Cindy Crawford talk about Cadillac’ or ‘let’s call the Volkswagen a lemon’.

“Now all the big ideas in the auto industry are around product innovation like self-driving cars and self-parking cars.

“It is the reallocation of advertising dollars into R&D.

“If you look at the companies that are winning, they all spend a disproportionate amount of capital on products trying to make a better product, because better products break through the algorithm.”

Galloway said the death of advertising will also hurt companies who have built great businesses on traditional media, specifically consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands.

“CPG is the house that advertising built,” he said.

“Of the top 100 CPG brands in America, 90 per cent lost share and two-thirds of them lost revenue.”

Galloway attributes this to every aspect of CPG being attacked by a well-financed player who is exiting the advertising ecosystem and investing in subscription models.

“If you look at Google Search – a great proxy for brand equity – you will see the Honest Company has more searches than Pampers or Huggies,” he noted.

“Moreover, you will see the same thing with Dollar Shave Club versus Gillette, which used to have an 80 per cent market share.”

Galloway argued that subscription is a better business model because it creates a sufficiently large lifetime value that enables a brand to invest into customer acquisition.

He said recent behavioural research supports the idea people have limited bandwidth to make decisions. Moreover, the more daily decisions people have to make, the greater the likelihood they will make a bad decision.

“I think the reason we are moving towards a subscription-based economy is young people are figuring out if you take every non-critical decision in your life and move it out, you can focus your limited bandwidth on decisions that matter,” he said.

The top advertisers in the world have not changed much in 50 years, and according to Galloway, data analysis reveals the world’s biggest advertisers are losing share of revenue relative to GDP.

In a bid to reverse this trend, some of the largest brands are moving towards new business models to recapture market share.

“P&G are now investing in Amazon dash trying to make CPG products with recurring revenue,” Galloway explained.

“They are reducing their ad spend as a percentage of sales in the last three years.

“The writing is on the wall – the biggest advertisers in the world are reducing their ad budgets and reallocating capital out of traditional marketing.”




Please login with linkedin to comment

ad-blocker Advertising Standards Bureau

Latest News

The Works Distills “Question Everything” For Archie Rose Distilling Co.
  • Campaigns

The Works Distills “Question Everything” For Archie Rose Distilling Co.

The Works has announced the launch of ‘Question Everything’ a new brand platform and campaign for their newest client, Archie Rose. As a nine-year-old independently owned and operated Australian multi-spirit distillery, Archie Rose has garnered a devoted following among existing customers, with a reputation primarily built on white spirits – particularly gin. However in line […]

farsiight Unveils New Market Positioning Putting Growth for Good Over Growth At All Costs
  • Marketing

farsiight Unveils New Market Positioning Putting Growth for Good Over Growth At All Costs

Brisbane performance agency farsiight has announced the launch of its new market positioning, Growth for Good, in response to a changing business landscape, marking a departure from a “growth at all costs” mentality that has defined the industry in recent years. Agency founders and brother duo, Josh and Ben Somerville, envision Growth for Good as […]

By Land Or By Sea: GoTransit Offers Options Galore For Transit Advertisers In Newcastle
  • Advertising

By Land Or By Sea: GoTransit Offers Options Galore For Transit Advertisers In Newcastle

Australia’s largest privately owned transit media supplier, GoTransit Media Group, now offers unprecedented options for transit advertising in Newcastle – on both land and sea following their successful tender to supply interior advertising inside the popular Stockton Ferries. The national transit media company is already well acquainted with the thriving NSW market, having successfully operated […]

‘People First Bank’ Heritage & People’s Choice Bank Unified
  • Marketing

‘People First Bank’ Heritage & People’s Choice Bank Unified

Heritage and People’s Choice have launched People First Bank, the new name for positive change in banking Australia’s largest customer-owned bank has unveiled its new brand, announcing that Heritage and People’s Choice will be unified under the new name of People First Bank. Chairman Michael Cameron said the highly anticipated new brand offered a compelling […]

L’Oréal Aus & NZ Partner With Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Announcing Large Investments
  • Marketing

L’Oréal Aus & NZ Partner With Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Announcing Large Investments

L’Oréal Groupe Australia and New Zealand have announced one of the largest investments to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to pioneer new coral restoration efforts in the region. L’Oréal Groupe Australia and New Zealand have announced today a new partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF), to help coral reefs withstand the devastating impacts […]

Media.Monks Names Matthew Godfrey EVP, Head Of Content In APAC
  • Marketing

Media.Monks Names Matthew Godfrey EVP, Head Of Content In APAC

Effective immediately, S4Capital’s operating brand Media.Monks, a digital-first marketing and advertising services company, has appointed Matthew Godfrey to lead its APAC Content practice. With over 15 years of experience leading innovative businesses in the Asia-Pacific region, Godfrey will support a best-in-class senior leadership team across the region as EVP, head of content, APAC. He joins […]

How AI Is Empowering Small Businesses With Creative Collaboration
  • Opinion

How AI Is Empowering Small Businesses With Creative Collaboration

Chandra Sinnathamby, Adobe’s director, digital media B2B strategy & GTM, Asia-Pacific, explains how the tech firm is empowering its small business customers with new AI tools, including its Adobe Firefly tools. In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, small businesses face numerous challenges when it comes to creating captivating content that resonates with their audience. Despite the […]

Opinion

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
Candace Warner, Tom Tilly & Harley Breen Kick Off Summer On Triple M
  • Media

Candace Warner, Tom Tilly & Harley Breen Kick Off Summer On Triple M

Summer mornings are heating up with Triple M again in 2023, thanks to the star-studded line-up of Harley Breen, Candice Warner and Tom Tilley, who are joining forces each weekday morning from 6-9 am for Triple M’s Summer Breakfast show. Airing from 4 to 15 December in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and streamed live on […]

Jimmy & Nath, Hamish & Andy And Seany B Light Up Christmas At Hit Network
  • Media

Jimmy & Nath, Hamish & Andy And Seany B Light Up Christmas At Hit Network

The Hit Network has announced its summer line-up for 2023, kicking off on Monday, 4 December, featuring The Jimmy & Nath Show, Hamish & Andy podcast, Nights with Seany B and special return celebrations for Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. Hit’s cheeky radio duo Jimmy Smith and Nath Roye of The Jimmy & Nath […]

AFFINITY Launches Worley Rebrand As A Force In Sustainability
  • Marketing

AFFINITY Launches Worley Rebrand As A Force In Sustainability

Full-service CX, media and advertising agency AFFINITY has completed an 18-month-long global rebranding for ASX-listed engineering powerhouse Worley. The rebrand reflects Worley’s commitment towards being a leading force in sustainable change. Worley, a global provider of professional services in the energy, chemicals and resources sectors working across six continents, has set out on a significant […]

R.M Williams Unveils “The Mark Of An Icon” Installation To Celebrate Opening Of New George St Store
  • Advertising

R.M Williams Unveils “The Mark Of An Icon” Installation To Celebrate Opening Of New George St Store

Highlighting its craft and a world-class shopping experience, Australia’s favourite heritage brand R.M.Williams has announced a consumer competition to celebrate the opening of its new national flagship store at 345 George St. Sydney. Launching on 1 December in line with the new store opening, ‘If The Boot Fits’ invites brand lovers and new customers alike […]