Can Seattle Reinvent Advertising?

Leslie D. Helm | February 2011 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

There’s an odd nostalgia about the days when the large New York agencies controlled advertising, perhaps from the way the era has been so artfully portrayed in the television show Mad Men. Even today, Madison Avenue executives like to proclaim that television and its fiefdoms, the large agencies, still rule the world of advertising.

Perhaps. But maybe not for long. The emergence of the World Wide Web and the availability of virtually unlimited display ad space on websites like Yahoo were the first developments that undercut the power of Madison Avenue. Then Google made it possible for advertisers to target narrow niches using particular search words, a business currently worth close to $30 billion a year.

Now comes the smartphone, a device that may well prove to be the perfect marketing machine. The device, which will soon be ubiquitous, has the capability, if you let it, to tell advertisers who you are and where you are. It can accept text messages and video clips and it can even act as your electronic wallet.

“Stop!” you might well say. “I don’t want my precious cell phone being inundated with ads.” I agree. I depend heavily on my smartphone and I don’t want it to become another advertising tool.

But what if your favorite restaurant wants to send you a coupon offering a 50 percent discount? What if Alaska Airlines wants to offer you a special deal to that Mexican resort you’ve always wanted to visit? Or suppose you’re in the aisles of the supermarket wondering what kind of wine to buy with the halibut you just bought and you get a discount for a Chardonnay that matches your taste based on previous purchases? The offers can be tempting.

Smartphones provide advertisers and marketers the potential to develop campaigns that are truly tailored so that individual customers can get the information they want when they need it. That day is not yet here. What works and what doesn’t? What’s acceptable and what’s not? The rules are being created as we go.

How this tech-driven advertising and marketing industry develops will depend not on the Mad Men of Madison Avenue, but on entrepreneurs in places like Seattle and San Francisco. Locally, companies like Microsoft, Amazon and HipCricket are creating this new future.

Luckily, we in Seattle also have a number of businesses such as Costco, Starbucks and REI that are leaders in improving the customer experience. Expedia and Amazon allow consumers to rate their experiences, making that information available to other consumers.

In the ideal world, these companies will lead the way, taking advantage of the new technology platforms being developed for the smartphone to create advertising and marketing campaigns that don’t inundate us with junk texts. Instead, they’ll find ways to increase the quality of the customer experience. I have my fingers crossed.