The issue is that ads these days are largely less about actually informing people about a product and more about a well-known brand keeping its market dominance. At this point, there’s basically no one who doesn’t know about McDonald’s or Coke but they still advertise heavily because they want to constantly be on people’s minds. They’re not really concerned about a return on their advertising investment as long as they’re still maintaining their position.
No, just that sales is probably not the only metric they’re looking at when buying ads. It’s about maintaining their brand image too.
We saw this with Amazon when a bunch of news articles about their union busting and poor work conditions were breaking. There were tons of ads from Amazon about how much people love working there and how great it is. They knew they needed to influence their public image and advertising is how they do it.
Someone still has to pay for the ads, and that someone will eventually notice they’re not getting enough for their money. And sooner than you think:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/28/news-media-europe-google-lawsuit-ad-revenue
The issue is that ads these days are largely less about actually informing people about a product and more about a well-known brand keeping its market dominance. At this point, there’s basically no one who doesn’t know about McDonald’s or Coke but they still advertise heavily because they want to constantly be on people’s minds. They’re not really concerned about a return on their advertising investment as long as they’re still maintaining their position.
So you’re saying Coke execs don’t live by metrics and are ok with throwing money out the window?
No, just that sales is probably not the only metric they’re looking at when buying ads. It’s about maintaining their brand image too.
We saw this with Amazon when a bunch of news articles about their union busting and poor work conditions were breaking. There were tons of ads from Amazon about how much people love working there and how great it is. They knew they needed to influence their public image and advertising is how they do it.