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The Importance of Advertising Education

The Importance of Advertising Education. Mike Longhurst Senior VP, McCann-Erickson Europe. The age old statements. Advertising is an art not a science You can’t teach advertising It is a creative business isn’t it? Consumers change all the time, so why bother? It is a young people’s game

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The Importance of Advertising Education

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  1. The Importance of Advertising Education Mike Longhurst Senior VP, McCann-Erickson Europe

  2. The age old statements • Advertising is an art not a science • You can’t teach advertising • It is a creative business isn’t it? • Consumers change all the time, so why bother? • It is a young people’s game • It’s just about personal flair • We don’t want others to know how to do it

  3. The Truth • It IS a young people’s game • Most older hands are lost before they can plough back what they know • Teaching on the job loses at least 50% of all knowledge • If knowledge is not created, distilled and packaged in universities for handing on to the next generation, much of it is lost

  4. So what about Advertising education?

  5. In UK universities we are low-profile Courses offered

  6. The reality • Only 12 / 96 recognised universities offer a degree course which contains Advertising • Total courses offered is 53, of which none is solus Advertising • Only one of those is ranked in the top 20 universities • Only 2 are in the top 60 • 13 are from universities that are unranked

  7. UK Graduate intake • 53% from top 10 Unis* • 92% from top 20* • 13% Studied Advertising-related subject* • Very few decided early that Advertising is what they wanted to do *IPA Stage 1 course graduate survey 2001

  8. Implications • Graduates have a vastly better chance of being taken on by an agency graduate trainee scheme if they: a) went to a top Uni b) studied an academic subject, not Advertising • Training courses like IPA try to fill the knowledge gap, but can only be partly successful • Grads historically don’t want structured post-grad qualifications

  9. So are the blind leading the blind?

  10. We complain about our diminished role with clients • Terms of business now little more than ½ what they were • Edged out of boardrooms by management consultancies • Regarded as the “delivery” end of the process, not the intellectual end • Our services bought in auctions, by purchasing departments

  11. The pressure is on us to be more effective • Clients face stiffer competition • They demand ever greater accountability • They are less trusting of thematic broadcast advertising • Are they right to be?

  12. How effective are we…really? • M&M, Euro Effies, IPA and other awards celebrate the achievements of the minority, not the majority • Most campaigns struggle to demonstrate effectiveness • For every brand that succeeds because of advertising, there might be another that fails because of advertising • And many that succeed despite advertising!

  13. How rigorously are the awards cases studied? • Just reading, collating and publishing achieves little • Where can the lessons be aggregated, analysed and disseminated, if not through universities?

  14. New Initiatives • UK’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has a long history of running great courses • They have now announced a welcome return to Post-grad qualifications after 20 years: • Foundation Certificate level • Check and supplement agency induction processes • Multiple choice questions • Online learning modules • Diploma level • Multi choice modules on theory and practice • And an MBA at Leeds University

  15. EACA has attacked the under-graduate problem • EACA initiative with University of Navarra • Aim to create a European curriculum • Educational Summit in Barcelona June 2003 • Aim to create a profession • Invited all educational institutions • Form Association and publish Journal

  16. I see problems for both • Post-grad is traditionally unpopular with grads • Will agency managements demand it? • University courses traditionally suffer from poor teaching • Will we be able to change that? But we need both!

  17. The conundrum Universities won’t offer good courses, because agencies won’t employ the graduates Agencies won’t employ the graduates because universities don’t offer good courses

  18. Meanwhile we live in challenging times for brands

  19. As the public face of brands, advertising has also become a target • Advertising a scapegoat, panacea, cheap shot • Demands for more laws, codes, regulations

  20. The search for cheap easy solutions focuses on advertising Consumption Deprivation Inequality Young drinking Obesity

  21. What “they” say about advertising Exploits children Damages the environment Creates waste Promotes sexism Encourages greed and envy Destroys indigenous lifestyles Destroys “Southern” industries Creates visual pollution….

  22. So? • Advertising is seen as part of every problem, not part of every solution • Advertising is seen as a disposable element, not essential to economic wellbeing • This is even more so amongst the young, who we depend on for new blood

  23. So? • A lot of people want to stop what we do • The best don’t want to join us and assist what we do

  24. Most of what is said about advertising is wrong…why? • We have tolerated or even fostered mythology • We have ignored proper education in our business • Both within advertising practitioners and outside

  25. Conspiracy theories that were destroyed many years ago have re-surfaced as new • Vance Packard’s “Hidden Persuaders” comes back as regularly as “Who killed Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe?” theories • The same thinking is being applied to new media

  26. Advertising is seen as the irresistible force The consumer is the defenceless victim

  27. Why can’t we simply prove them wrong? • Because we often aren’t clear on the answers ourselves • And we are working against low knowledge and high scepticism of advertising outside the business • Yet everyone experiences advertising and everyone has an opinion

  28. Conclusions • In many respects we aren’t impressing anyone as much as we think • Recruits • Clients • Opinion-leaders • Legislators

  29. Conclusions • The traditional idea that “You can’t teach Advertising” is false • Our business needs the academic influence and disciplines • It will not kill creativity

  30. Conclusions • The advertising business needs to achieve a better balance between Art and Science • It needs to build the Art onto the Science, not add a bit of Science to the Art

  31. Education is our only way forward. Thank You

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