The Business Journal
Sharing the Risk
This article 'Share the risk . .' quoted a guru at the time [1990],
Robert Heller, from his book,
The Supermarketers,
"Marketing men indulge in exaggeration (or outright lies) more cheerfully, it seems, than anybody else in management.
Often there's no apparent point to their inventions about their market shares, their product's charms, their profits -
but apparently nobody minds." The next paragraph quotes Fred Turner, chairman of McDonald's as saying,
"Ad men are bullshitters." That was a tough sell at the time; that ad agencies should cut the bullshit
and that advertisers should pay for performance.
But today, sharing the risk
and paying for performance is the business model by which Google
operates - and makes billions; the most significant trend in
marketing in decades and the trend that will lead
all marketing, online or offline, into the future.
Sadly, traditional, offline ad agencies continue to sell 'creative', as billings and clients
continue to avoid them.
