Our Time. Our Money.

For decades, advertising agencies on Madison Avenue have been “buying media”. There are media managers, media planners, and media buyers. But what exactly are they buying?

That question is answered in this Mediapost column about the changing perspective on Madison Avenue. This quote pretty much sums it all up….

“…a philosophical shift on Madison Avenue, where major agency holding company media services operations say they have shifted from a mentality of “buying media,” to one of “buying audiences,” ”

Ad agencies used to “buy media” and not surprisingly, they paid media companies. If ad agencies are now “buying audiences” shouldn’t they start paying the members of the audience?

I was just forwarded this amazing speech from the Web 2.0 conference last year.

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

It’s long. But give it a click just to get a taste of what the author is talking about. The main point is that in the first half of the 1900s, massive advancements and efficiencies resulting from the industrial revolution. The result was that people suddenly had a surplus of TIME. Like lots of sudden surpluses, we were not prepared and didn’t know what to do with this suddenly available free time.

So we watched television, and media companies figured out how to extract the value out of our free time.

But like all changes, eventually, the shock thaws out and the surplus becomes a true asset. Now we demand far more in return for our time. Gomper is one of the ways that people will be able to start getting more value of their valuable asset called free time.

Madison Avenue is abuzz this week about the latest university research which found that 2/3s of American consumers don’t like being tracked online. I’m not really sure why this is shocking or even newsworthy.

Not surprisingly, all the pundits are jumping on the privacy angle….consumers don’t want anyone to know anything about them!! I think that’s BS. We share personal information with realtors, car salesmen, neighbors and strangers daily. But when we do that, WE receive the value, not someone else. I don’t think consumers are freaking out that Ford wants to know what car you drive. I think we are freaking out because that info is gathered behind our back and sold without any benefit to us.

If the question is asked honestly, what the advertising industry is really asking is this…

“How can we get consumers to feel OK about having their personal information collected and sold despite the fact that we are unwilling to share any of the bounty and value their personal information generates?”.

If consumers, who own their personal information, received the money that was spent buying that information…does anyone think 2/3s of Americans would object?