We don't need brands, don't you think?

Tell me if I'm wrong, but there are alternatives for brands, aren't there?

I mean, it became quite obvious to me that what people actually go for aren't 'brands'. They go for real, immediate, and personal advantages.

Of course, brands can deliver advantages. But most of them don't. Especially not in their advertising. A pity, isn't it? I was deeply diappointed when I realized advertising - for decades - seemed to be very content with its crude reason to be: People don't know better.

But that changes.


(Note in German saying: "What a stupid ad")

People start to do know better, and at the end no one will need advertising, because people will know better than ad agencies can. But that's not a problem. It's the beginning of the greatest time in ad history. A fun time. And play time. I'm not kidding.

Sure, it's great if you are able to tell a wonderful story in a 60 second TV commercial. But it's hard work. And you never really know if it's really going to be great.

Call me a windbag if you think I'm wrong, but I believe that it's even easier today to fascinate people with what we used to call advertising. We just have to consider our job - the advertiser's job - as delievering 'advantage on attention' and give a damn about vision, mission, and values. These things are only crucial when all competitors in a market are equally using the chances creative sales-support-services offer.

You didn't know about what Google was standing for when you used it the first time, did you? You just took advantage of what they offered: A way to cope with the internet.

These services I am thinking of aren't neccessarily web based services. A very old offline example of them is the Guide Michelin. A more recent interpretation that I think is fun using, is the PIMM's Sunshine Finder by Agency Republic.

Hopefully, we will see more and more of such creative sales-support-services in the future.

And none of the "old media" institutions have to be frightened of losing their reason to be - as ad agencies do not have to, neither. We only need to dramatically re-think what our job is all about tomorrow: Is it telling stories, or is it creating real, immediate, and personal advantages?

What would you say?