I Saw 30 Ads on Thursday

This marketer goes back to beginners' mind and comes up with a few insights

Welcome to the latest entry in The Workaround. You’re in good company with thousands of fellow entrepreneurs and innovators!

I’m Bob, your host. My mission here is to share personal, behind-the-scenes stories of the ups and downs of my career leading tech startups and corporate innovation.

I write to make you think, smile, and discover a shortcut to success or a trap to avoid.

Here we go…

Advertising will always be in our future. And this cheesy line will always be used to convince advertisers to spend.

As I shared a few weeks ago, I’ve recently jumped back into the digital marketing industry after a 3-year hiatus. Our team is already starting to rekindle the magic we made together before, but we’re also continually questioning what’s different this time.

As a history and strategy geek, I well remember the words of French Prime Minister George Clemenceau, who complained during World War I that "Generals always prepare to fight the last war, especially if they won.”

One of the things that has been rattling around in my head lately is the question of how today’s consumers see advertising—literally, how much they see through the course of a day.

Back in 2008, I wrote a book, The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with Consumers by Marketing with Meaning. The thesis of the book is that in a world of “3,000 advertising interruptions per day”—and a growing ability to skip or block them through digital technology—marketers would be forced to create advertising that adds value. In other words: “Marketing with Meaning.”

In the 17 years (!) since I wrote the book, this shift seems to have been happening. Ad blocking is common; people watch and read a lot more subscription-based media with few or no ads, and content and influencer marketing are now commonplace.

Last Thursday, I woke up with a “shower thought”—it’s when you’re going through the motions of washing shortly after waking up, and your brain serves up something that your unconscious was processing the night before. Well, my shower that day was: “I wonder how many ads I will see today?”

Thus, a task—and post—were born. The result was eye-opening and a reminder to keep coming back to a beginner’s mind…

The Setup

First, let’s get this one out of the way: My experience is far from representative of whatever audience you might be targeting. There’s nothing worse in research than relying on the results of N=1. If you’ve ever pitched an idea to a VC and had them say, “My wife wouldn’t use that,” you know what I mean. So take whatever you read here with that big ole’ caveat.

Second, my demographic status and media consumption are likely a lot different than your average Adult, 25-54. At age 52, I’m holding onto age relevance by my fingernails. My kids are out of the house, I don’t have a “normal” job or income, and there are a bunch of marketing-laden apps and media channels that I’ve purposely opted out of to better manage my mental health.

Finally, despite having worked in advertising in some form going back to 1999, I actively try to avoid its interruptions. I use Ad Block Plus for Chrome (and pay for it). I watch mainly ad-free subscription-based TV for just an hour per day. If I have to watch live, commercial-laden sports, I almost always DVR it and start watching an hour after tip or kick-off so that I can breeze through the commercials. (Note: this is also great for when your favorite team is getting crushed—you can skip through the emotional pain).

But N=1 can be insightful. Some of the top marketers in the world rely on deep interviews with individuals across a range of ages, incomes, and interests. They go into consumers’ homes, watch them make dinner, do chores, and even take showers (with bathing suits on). This immersive experience can provide rich insights and first-hand understanding that simple surveys miss—even at N=1,000,000.

Regarding ad impression reporting for this experiment, I worked particularly hard to pay attention. I carried a notepad and wrote down details throughout my day. I counted any paid placements and unrequested, non-value-add messages only, which is how most advertising budgets are spent. I didn’t count useful content marketing that came to me, but I still noted it.

The Results

I only saw 30 ads from when I woke up Thursday to turning off the lights for bed.

Let’s stop and marvel at this for a second…Only 30 ads? How can this be? After all, I wrote in my book that people see 3,000 ads per day. Some research says it’s 4,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 ads per day!

And we’re all wrong! All of these quotes go back to guesstimates upon guesstimates. We’re all guilty of Googling for a juicy quote to make the point that ads are annoyingly everywhere. Check out this fascinating post from The Drum about how these numbers got invented, quoted, and promoted.

[Note: a few days after hitting send on this post, I discovered that the circular citing that plays a role in the 3,000 ads/day claim is called The Woozle Effect. Thanks to the always-amazing

Gurwinder

for sharing this!]

Interestingly, despite around $1 trillion spent on advertising worldwide annually, the number of studies looking to track this number is almost nil. The Drum found a grad student at the University of Nebraska who did a diary study in 2007 that showed 98.5 ad exposures per day. But, like me, that study was N=1. Why isn’t our industry investing in debunking a myth that makes ads look like the enemy? Alas, it’s not the first or last self-inflicted wound for an industry that people consider one of the least trustworthy…

But let’s dig into the details of my advertising on Thursday. Here’s the play-by-play:

Email: 5 ads. This included an overnight running relay that I did 10 years ago, “special offers” from my American Express card, a concert coming to my area for a band I’ve never heard of, and an Improv group in town which I’ve been on the fence about signing up for someday. Note that I’m an aggressive unsubscriber and end nearly every day at Inbox Zero. The overnight relay got the axe, but I kept the others because they sometimes bring value. I also kept three other content marketing emails that brought me something useful with a modest product or service offered at the bottom (Hey, that’s what I do here!)

Amazon: 2 visits, 9 ads. First thing in the morning, I went to Amazon to check out a self-filming drone called the HoverAir X1. Ironically, I learned about this the previous night when watching a travel influencer’s YouTube video. I got served 4 ads on this journey and abandoned the idea of buying when I saw the $479 price tag (I think it’s really only for travel influencers—itself an amazing target audience for products). I returned to Amazon a few hours later to purchase a book that a friend recommended during a Zoom catch-up chat. I got another 4 ads in the process. A few hours later I noticed the Amazon app on my phone notified me of some random product it thought I might like. Those notifications are now blocked.

Other websites: 5 ads. I checked in with my college basketball team fan blog (3 ads made it through Ad Block Plus, but they were well targeted with B2B content marketing software!) and went to LinkedIn a couple of times (2 promoted posts on the landing feed).

Outdoor: 9 ads. My friend Jeff came over, and we walked our dogs together in the morning. I saw 3 ads on the soccer stadium across the street from my home. Later in the day, I drove my wife to the airport and spotted 6 billboards on that journey.

Other media. 2 ads. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I’ve been playing a mobile strategy game for ten years, and today, it was interrupted by an ad to announce a new game the developer is launching. But this message came with a sweet reward of “gems.” I also got a late afternoon voicemail from a political party I donated to long ago. Can’t wait for election season! Meanwhile, two pieces of content marketing came in that I don’t count as an interruption: (1) a business podcast with a message about their consulting services at the end (great idea!) and (2) a YouTube video with a review of a new guitar—which the host got use of in return for his honest feedback (dream job!).

Overall, this was a pretty normal day, and advertising wasn’t a very big part of it, even with me paying close attention.

What’s the Point?

If you’re a marketer reading this, you might consider taking away a few points from my little experiment.

First, on the B2C side, it might be best to write people like me off completely. Advertising only works when you can reach a target audience at scale. People like me might be within this target, but you can’t reach us at a reasonable cost at a meaningful scale. So maybe it’s best to ignore the hard-to-find people, partly because we’re actively avoiding most marketing.

We sometimes forget that advertising might drive a small percentage of our revenue anyway. Even huge brands you’ve grown up seeing and buying typically derive only about 10% of annual volume from advertising investments. The other 90% comes from a combination of word-of-mouth, placement on a shelf, discounts, and just that it’s the brand you decided to go with decades ago—maybe even because your Mom used it (because her Mom used it).

But there might also be an analogy to astrophysics…hang with me…

Over the past few decades, scientists have “discovered” that energy and elements that comprise stars, planets, and similar visible objects only represent 5% of the stuff in our universe. The other 95% is something called Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We don’t know what it is, but there’s a whole bunch of it.

Bringing it back to business: What if a giant, growing group of Dark Consumers of your brand or category is unreachable by your current marketing plan?

You could ignore it, like your competitors do, and keep hitting that shrinking number of visible buyers. Or you might zag while they zig and try to tap into the untapped audience.

Personally, I think content marketing, provided by trusted creators, continues to be a massive opportunity hiding in plain sight. This is the stuff we choose to click on and keep in our inboxes. But it takes a different way of thinking about your ad spend, creative process, and measurement. And it’s not as easy as turning on paid search or turning the writing work over to an A.I.

But, again, your mileage may vary. Please don’t build your marketing plan around my media habits—unless you work at Gibson Guitars, in which case I will happily publish a review of any product you send my way (especially the DG-335).

“Do Your Own Research”

This ^^^ quote has been stolen by the conspiracy theory crowd, but I’m taking it back. The point of this post is not to give you media plan ideas. Instead, I’m encouraging us to dig deeper, on our own, in gathering insights and making decisions.

Years ago, a friend started a brewery and asked me to invest in it. He had never started a business before, much less a brewery, but when he told me that he spent his weekends counting cars at key intersections to choose a location, he had me sold. Anyone who did that kind of hard research work would likely figure out the countless other decisions and problems that would come up. The brewery did extremely well.

If you’re getting into a new business or hoping to turn your current business around, don’t just trust a handful of talking heads or whatever the common wisdom parrots. Read the scientific papers. Listen to your competitor’s salespeople pitch you. Count the badges at the conference booths.

And remember that your decades of knowledge, experience, and success can sometimes be your worst enemy. They can keep you from seeing changes that unearth new opportunities and punish past tactics.

Socrates was the wisest of Athens because he kept reminding himself that he knew nothing. Zen Buddhism refers to this as the Beginner’s Mind. It involves approaching the moments of your life as if you are a child doing something for the first time. This fresh, curious way of thinking can make even your daily breakfast more exciting. I’m no Zen Master, but I once had a religious experience chewing a bagel. Seriously.

Like so much else, this ladders up to better understanding our minds. The better we know ourselves and our limitations, the easier work and life get.

“Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” – Sharon Salzberg

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How we might work together…

• Are you interested in launching your own consulting or service business or need help taking your current services business to the next level? Fleet is our holding company for services, and we’re actively looking to build business partnerships with winning leaders. Let’s talk!

• My team and I lead Hearty, a boutique recruiting service that helps tech-forward companies hire proven talent. Our senior team of operators sources and screens, saving you time and money. When you need help, let’s chat.

• Need help with a software project? Perhaps a product MVP, a project that requires outside help, or a fractional CTO for key strategic decisions? Our team at Shipwright Studio has worked together to build multiple successful startups, and we love helping leaders turn their dreams into reality. We're the team our clients trust for software built to last.

• Looking for Influencer Marketing and Content Creation? The team from our previous company is back by popular demand with A2 Influence. We’re ramping up now and would love to share more.

• Feel free to schedule time during my Open Hours to discuss questions, feedback, networking, or any other topic!

• Find me on LinkedIn or email.

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BONUS: Cool Content of the Week

A little something I found meaningful. You might agree…

Moises: The Musician’s App

There aren’t as many killer apps as there used to be. Maybe the best ideas were the low-hanging fruit that had been picked already. Or maybe the business models are just so awful for app creators: Almost no one pays for them, there’s rarely enough eyeballs for an ad business, and Apple and Google keep copying and pre-installing the best tools.

But last week, I felt like a kid with a new iPhone again when I discovered the Moises app—via a paid placement on a YouTube influencer guitar video!

I play guitar for about 30 minutes most nights, usually covering my favorite songs of the ‘80s and ‘90s. For a long time, I’ve been looking for a way to hear the drums and other instruments from these songs while I play guitar and sing. Moises makes this easy. Within seconds, you can upload a song, and it creates separate tracks, allowing you to essentially create your own play-and-sing-along karaoke machine.

Moises unlocks more enjoyment in my music play and renews my confidence that smart people will keep inventing killer apps—no matter the barriers.