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From Madison Avenue to Content: How Advertising Has Changed

Writer's picture: Megean Mcbride-SanchezMegean Mcbride-Sanchez



In the ever-changing world of advertising, one thing is abundantly clear: It's not what it used to be. As a marketer of 10 years I've watched with fascination as advertising has transformed from highly professional photographs where I would hire big crews to create beautiful photos to cellphone pictures on the street. And while the landscape has shifted dramatically toward a more content-centric, data-driven, and personalized approach, I've really started to wonder. Has it really changed at all? Or have the tools just changed.


Before the journey from product to customer was fairly simple. You had to have money and lots of it. With campaigns from the tobacco industry to Madison Avenue- it was a flashy game of who has the biggest and brightest billboard. But years of false advertising and an economy that has bailed at companies over people have changed consumer based trust in what has worked in the passed. Even over the last two years brand name influencers like the Kardashians and Charlie D'Amelio have begun to create distrust. Words like 'authenticity' and 'rare' make us roll our eyes. Gone are the days of intrusive advertisements that disrupt our online experience. Instead, advertising has become more about engaging and informing consumers. Content marketing has taken center stage, with businesses creating valuable blog posts, videos, podcasts, and social media content that resonate with their audiences. It is not just an algorithm game where long form SEO is developed into short form content; it's a game of entertainment. And a lot of it. People want to be friends instead of fans. More importantly: people don't just want to be entertained, they want to be educated.


Advertising is now all about fitting seamlessly into the content that surrounds it. Native advertising has become a favorite, offering a less intrusive, more engaging form of promotion that respects the audience's experience. UGC (User-Generated Content) where regular people showcase the how and why of a product has started to gain traction. Short-form video ads and live-streamed content have taken over platforms like YouTube and TikTok. These are now at the forefront of modern advertising, capturing our short attention spans and engaging us in new ways. In this way a company can use a 'grass roots method' without the work. But how do you do that in a landscape like the internet that is riddled with a million different influencers, marketers, and products? Easy, you focus on the same building blocks you always have and you hire someone who knows their stuff.





Building Blocks for the New Age:


  1. Create a clear brand: Shifting your mindset into not just the looks, colors, and typography to how does this brand resonate with its customers really changes the game in terms of how you utilize whatever content you make for that brand.


2. Generate Interest vs. Building Desire: There is a huge difference between a single like and the five clicks it take to buy something. The viral Tiktok Shadow Journal's campaign was the perfect example of this. It would have been easy to publish it and put it on the shelves at the book store. Just another journal to forget. But the grassroots campaign of utilizing tiktok shop so that customers can share their journey with the journal created a desire to heal amongst the wider tiktok community. It was the platform + the people + the product: and thats how they were able to sell so many. They're still selling out.


3. Drive Action: The main reason UGC seems to work so well is that it drives a clear action of how every day people use the product in every day life. But this also depends on the product. Would you rather buy a mascara on an app from a big company or get it suggested to you from your aunt? We trust the people we know.


4. Targeting Specific Audiences: Modern advertising is much more precise than it was in previous years. Even in the early 2000s- advertisements were wide spread and the artistic focus was more important. Now with algorithms and apps you can use your demographic audience as your map and guiding tool. You can focus every single piece of content specifically to fit them.


5. Adapting to Market Changes: Here is where I suggest the biggest hurdle- hiring the right person for the job. Expecting yourself or your business to both run the business and create a whole marketing grassroots campaign and keep up with customer comments and everything else- is crazy! Even in a world with Canva and AI- we as business owners forget- these are just tools. They aren't people who are able to do the job itself. Here is where I think many businesses lose their edge. Thinking that marketing itself is not a full time job or not as important as the product. Now a days- the brand itself is synonymous with the product. You can't have one without the other. So hiring the right person and listening to them as algorithm changes and marketing changes come into play is key to running a successful business in this climate.

In summary, the industry has changed but the tools will always remain the same. Know your product. Know your customer. And hire the right person for the job. The focus is on engaging consumers with relevant content while respecting their privacy and preferences. As technology continues to advance and consumer expectations evolve, advertising will likely continue to adapt. And so can you. You just got to find the right people to help you.




<3 M

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