Faris Yakob wrote an article titled Over-optimised and underwhelmed. The main message is that in the obsession with quantitative metrics, advertisers seem to have forgotten that their job is to communicate with humans.
« The problem with endless overoptimisation is that we look at advertising through the lens of a spreadsheet, which inherently reflects short-term growth over long-term frustration with advertising as a whole, which in turn impacts the industry and its long-term efficacy. We lose the humanity in the craft. It leads to ridiculous statements, such as the one recently tweeted by the IAB, the body that defines online advertising. At their recent conference, a speaker felt the need to say: “We need to remember that we’re speaking to humans and that advertising is a form of communication.” If there was any clearer reminder of the dangers of the quantitative fallacy for advertising, it’s having to be reminded it involves communicating with people. »
Faris Yakob is the author of Paid Attention: Innovative Advertising for a Digital World.
