The digital world and the power of advertising.

I’ve read many a post on how the information consumers find on the net eviscerates the power of old-school advertising. Here’s an example of the argument.

There’s no doubt that user reviews, social networks, and consumer-generated, brand related content have changed the rules, but I don’t think these things steal advertising’s power or necessarily reduce it, they just change it.

Twelve years ago, which feels like a century in the universe of exploding and fragmented media, advertisers could repeat whatever they liked often enough, and there was a good chance it would become accepted as truth. Today consumers have the ability to adopt a Reaganesque “trust but verify” policy with advertisers, at least on specific product or service claims, and even matters of reputation. But the idea that a consumer’s digital world renders advertising powerless seems based on the presumption that advertising’s power is in making people believe lies, which is too absolute and too cynical for me.

Advertising is, and maybe always will be, a key tool for building and maintaining a brand image and awareness, reinforcing loyalty, and encouraging trial. It can provide some control over the message and user imagery, and it can establish a context in which a brand is considered.

Beyond that, and I know this might sound insane to jaded ad jockeys, but I do think there can be a level of inherent credibility attached to advertising. Here’s what I mean. Before I signed up with particular VOIP outfit, I did some net research and learned that I could cobble together something myself from a number of hardware and IP telephony outfits. But, because I’d seen this particular provider advertising as if their lives depended on it, I made a subconscious assumption that they were big enough to at least think they were serious about their business, that they had some money to risk on advertising, and that they felt their service was good enough to deliver a reward for that risk. I was predisposed to look into them then. Ultimately I signed with them because I wanted a big name behind a new technology.

No doubt the net changes the rules for advertising, but for businesses with an honest message, times may be better than ever.