The Future of Advertising : New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age [Hardcover]

Joe Cappo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2003

Advertising Age is the world's most widely read resource for advertising industry news, information, and analysis. McGraw-Hill's new Advertising Age series represents an exciting partnership that will--like the magazine itself--provide professionals with vital and usable information that is lively, informative, and indispensable.

A celebrated ad veteran talks about where advertising is, where it is going--and how to take advantage of its many changes

In The Future of Advertising, international ad industry thought leader Joe Cappo analyzes the factors reshaping today's advertising industry. Advertising and marketing professionals will get thought-provoking and valuable guidance on how to position themselves, their work, and their clients to meet consumer needs in the coming years.

In addition to Cappo's input, insight, and anecdotes, pieces from prominent agency heads, advertisers, brand managers, and creatives provide a 360-degree view of the state of advertising today. All readers will learn how to skillfully navigate fast-changing factors including:

• Changes in the long-entrenched commission system
• Consolidation of major agencies
• Internet and E-tailing initiatives

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Who better to tell us about the future of advertising than Joe Cappo? His years at Advertising Age and his vast knowledge of the industry make for a deeply insightful book."
--Gordon T. Hughes II, president and CEO, American Business Media

"This book is an enjoyable read for practitioners, educators, students, and anyone who loves advertising and wants to learn more about this exciting, sometimes crazy, and constantly changing business."
--Joe Pisani, Ph.D., professor, Department of Advertising, University of Florida

"Joe Cappo has 'been there and done that,' so he is eminently qualified to prognosticate with The Future of Advertising. Every advertising and marketing executive can learn how we got here and where we're going next. A blueprint for the future."
--Don E. Schultz, professor emeritus-in-service, Integrated Marketing Communications Department, Northwestern University

How to advertise successfully in a constantly morphing environment

Rapidly developing new technologies, media outlets constantly proliferating and changing, markets dissolving and reemerging almost daily, consumers becoming more skeptical by the minute--by the time you say "future," it's already passé! How can advertisers, agencies, and traditional media outlets adapt to and thrive in an environment that just keeps changing?

In The Future of Advertising, veteran advertising columnist and publisher Joe Cappo develops a series of surprisingly straightforward and practical strategies for anticipating and managing change in a turbulent industry. Addressing major issues such as the impact of cable TV, direct marketing, and the Internet; the emergence of alternate marketing disciplines; and the disappearance of the mass market, Cappo outlines a variety of innovative solutions, including:

• Merging "above-the-line" advertising with alternative "below-the-line" techniques
• Coordinating traditional advertising with online buying patterns
• Marketing youth-oriented products to an aging population
• Finding new places for old media
• And much more

Gone are the days of the 15 percent commission on media buys, the three-martini lunch, and 100 million viewers tuning into the same TV show every Tuesday night at nine. The proliferation of new media, escalating competitive pressures, and the emergence of alternate marketing disciplines have transformed the advertising industry. As rapidly as the industry has changed, however, it continues to face new and daunting challenges, and those who wish to survive in this uncertain future had better anticipate these challenges and find ways to overcome them.

In The Future of Advertising, ad-industry thought leader Joe Cappo offers provocative analysis of these recent changes along with insightful projections of what's to come. He traces the consolidation of twenty major agencies into four giant holding companies and explores the curious absence of a new generation of swaggering advertising entrepreneurs on the model of Leo Burnett and David Ogilvy. He examines the continuing impact of cable TV, direct marketing, and the Internet on the advertising industry and traditional media and suggests strategies for adapting to--and thriving in--this challenging new environment.

Laced with colorful anecdotes from Cappo's illustrious career, The Future of Advertising addresses such major issues as the need for newspapers to transform themselves as radio did after the advent of television; the growth of commercial-free, fee-for-service media such as HBO; and the virtual disappearance of the mass audience. He explains why there is no longer any distinction between "above-the-line" advertising and alternative "below-the-line" marketing techniques and why agencies who choose to ignore this emerging truth do so at their peril.

Among the innovative ideas you'll find in this surprising look into the future are techniques for coordinating traditional media advertising efforts with known online buying patterns; merging traditional advertising with direct marketing via transactional TV; and marketing traditionally youth-oriented products to an aging population. You'll also find entertaining and perceptive commentaries from such industry leaders as John Emmerling, Phil Guarascio, Bruce Mason, Dom Rossi, Fred Danzig, and more.

If you plan to spend any part of your future in this rapidly morphing industry, it's time to prepare yourself for the big changes still to come. Start by reading The Future of Advertising.

About the Author

Joe Cappo is senior vice president international for Crain Communications, Inc. He is the former publisher of Advertising Age and former world president of the International Advertising Association.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071403159
• ISBN-13: 978-0071403153
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,982,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe Cappo, award-winning journalist and longtime observer of the marketing business, is the author of "The Future of Advertising: New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age."
Mr. Cappo formerly worked at Crain Communications Inc., where he held several important posts over a 25-year career. He most recently served as senior vice president-international and licensing for the publisher of more than 30 business and professional journals. In that position, he negotiated licensing agreements that expanded Crain publications to more than 20 countries around the world and to major databases and digital research sources. He also headed the acquisition of Crain's first non-English publications in Mexico and served as the subsidiary's first president.
He joined the company in 1978 as columnist for the first issue of Crain's Chicago Business. Over the next 25 years, he served as publisher of Crain's Chicago Business, publisher of Advertising Age, and group publisher over seven journals. His opinion column, often on marketing related topics, appeared regularly in Crain's Chicago Business for 25 years.
Before joining Crain, Mr. Cappo worked at the Chicago Daily News, covering crime, politics and general assignments for six years before writing a daily advertising and marketing column for nine years. When the Daily News folded in 1978, he moved his column to the Chicago Sun-Times for a brief time before joining Crain.
A native of Chicago, he attended DePaul University where he majored in philosophy and economics before serving two years in the U.S. Army. Since retiring, he has joined the faculty of DePaul University as an adjunct professor, teaching graduate classes in journalism and advertising in the College of Communication.
For more than ten years, Mr. Cappo hosted "Crain's American Business," the inflight audio channel on American Airlines. He formerly broadcast twice-daily business commentaries on Chicago's FM 100 for 18 years and is the author of "FutureScope: Success Strategies for the 1990s and Beyond," a best-selling book about the 21st Century consumer.
During his career, Mr. Cappo conducted hundreds of interviews with a wide variety of interesting personalities including Richard M. Nixon, Johnny Carson, Hubert H. Humphrey, Colonel Harland Sanders, Yogi Berra and many others.
His most recent book, "The Future of Advertising: New Media, New Clients and New Consumers in the Post-Television Age," (McGraw-Hill)has been published in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish and Serbo-Croatian. It is being used as a textbook or required reading at several universities across the world.
From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Cappo was world president of the International Advertising Association, the only global organization covering all elements of the advertising business. He formerly served on the editorial and international committees of the American Business Media, and the international committee of the Magazine Publishers of America. He also was president of the Association of Area Business Publications and board member of the Chicago Advertising Federation in the early 1980s. He is currently vice president of the Off The Street Club, a 109-year-old organization that serves disadvantaged children, and a board member of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.
As a writer, commentator and media executive, he has lectured extensively across North America and in more than 30 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. His many awards include:
* Lifetime Achievement Award from Chicago Headline Club-Society of Professional Journalists, 2007
* Member, Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, 2004
* Lewis M. Conn Award from the Association of Area Business Publications, 2004
* Dante Award from the Joint Civic Committee of Italian-Americans, 2003
* Best Original Column, Association of Area Business Publications, 1985
* Lifetime Achievement Award from DePaul University Communication Department, 1985
* Peter Lisagor Award from Chicago Headline Club-Society of Professional Journalists, 1978
* Page One Award from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, 1978
* Outstanding Achievement Award from the Justinian Society of Lawyers, 1978.
* Champion Award from the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, 1978
* Distinguished Alumni Award from DePaul University, 1977
* Best Feature Story, Illinois Press Association, 1962
Website: www.joecappo.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best overall ad book on my shelf, August 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Future of Advertising : New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age (Hardcover)

I probably own over twenty books on marketing and advertising; weighty tomes written by the greats and near-greats. But Joe Cappo's crisply written new book is the best global overview I've seen yet. It clearly describes how the advertising industry has evolved dramatically over the past few decades -- and then speculates on the future twists and turns that may come to pass on the "advertising journey."

Will TV fade away and disappear? Of course not, and Cappo is the first to tell us that. But new ways of handling the challenges of commercial clutter (and of personal video recorders such as TiVo) must be innovated. Is the print medium at risk in the future? Perhaps, and that means newspapers most of all. (As this book points out, newspapers have a problem because they own their costly and inefficient printing presses, and are committed to an antiquated distribution system consisting of trucks rumbling through metropolitan areas to deliver their burdens to readers' doors.) The Internet, which came out of nowhere in the 90's -- and caught most advertising professionals flat-footed -- will continue to have a growing and enormous impact on consumers and businesses. (FYI, Cappo tells us that a study covering usage of all media forms revealed that by April, 2002 fully 25% of respondents were getting their daily dose of news ONLINE. Amazing.)

I'm sort of an old codger with a lot of years logged at advertising agencies. But Cappo's book makes me wish I were a kid of 21 again -- bright-eyed and launching into a career in the provocative and ever-changing world of advertising.

So if you're looking for an informative, entertaining, "short course" on the past, present and future of the ad biz, buy this book. I gave it 5 stars. (And I'd have given it 6 if Amazon allowed that over-the-top option.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advertising is the science that discovered how to quantify art., December 2, 2006

By 

David Howse "dhcc" (Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Future of Advertising: New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age (Paperback)

I don't get some of the comments (reviews listed). How can you say Cappo focuses too much on history? I wonder if anyone who thinks such a thing is really a media analyst ... I'm talking multiple regression analysis here, the past 100 years (weighted) of data that is made up of many variables and the outcome of each set. With this whe can assume a probability of what will happen before this year is out and future years (based on reasonable assumptions or trends).

That's statistical history and Cappo, though not mentioning regression, is using the theory (whether it's audience size, ad budgets, etc.)

Second, history is ethnography (the study of life stories of communities [generally speaking]), there is classical ethnography and there are many newer types such as usage ethnography. Sitting is people homes and watching how they watch TV etc.) If you think you know the history of advertising but you haven't used the above mentioned tools (and there are several more, sociology, psychology, women's studies etc.) THEN YOU DON'T KNOW ADVERTISING! - READ THIS BOOK! Unfortunately, if you read this book and you still don't get it, hook-up with some experts - not Joe Blow from the local print shop but Joe Cappo or someone as schooled. Alternatively, if you think you do know the history of advertising so well then why haven't you written a better book?

Now for some criticisms, TV dying... I'm not sure Joe actually said that. If he did say that, I think what he really meant to say was that TV is changing. If you don't read Joe's [former] rag, Advertising Age, then you are missing out. A major company (P&G?) announced two weeks ago it was repositioning its advertising towards TV!

Second, the end to commercials on TV? I actually believed without a critical thought that this was a reality. After discussing it with a colleague I was reminded of the all-time-greatest technical sore thumb, the flashing clock on the VCR. All the technology in the world isn't going to motivate someone to press more than one button. How can a society so trained in passive viewing (TV) be motivated to do more than press on, off, channel up, channel down? Fast-forward is about as complicated as most things get. But Joe seems sold on the idea that the top of the curve is going to change its behavior and enter the world of the early adopter/nerds? There needs to be a greater reward to alter behavior than not having to watch commercials. It took porn and free games to put computers or VCRs/DVDs in every household so I don't think the prospect of skipping commercials is a big enough reward for the first 95 percent of the curve.

Conclusion: I'd read this book five times if I had the time. IT IS insightful, especially chapter 11. I took about 22 separate notes from this book, so if you don't have time to read the whole book then read pages 30,32,36,37,45,46,47,49,51,52, 55,56,62,64,70, 160,206,227, and 228. I loved the insightful comment comparing Survivor and Abram Maslow.

If anyone has any opinions about what I have written I strongly encourage you to send me an email, I'd love to discuss advertising & marketing, especially how social sciences weigh in. We can probably help each other.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read!, October 13, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Future of Advertising : New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age (Hardcover)

Once considered a glamorous, creative and positive influence on American popular culture, the advertising business has changed so dramatically it is almost unrecognizable today. Veteran journalist Joe Cappo uses a personal approach and an historical perspective to explain the problems advertising is facing. Two decades ago, some 20 major agencies, all independent and competing against each other, developed innovative, memorable campaigns for a variety of consumer products. But those days are over. Today, four global marketing communications holding companies control 55% of marketing expenditures. This consolidation curtailed creativity, which has resulted in agencies that produce very few memorable ads or integrated marketing efforts despite unprecedented resources. Refreshingly, Cappo does not temper his industry critique in this slightly disjointed, but well-written explanation, which is buttressed by short articles from other industry experts. Cappo sounds a wake-up call for agencies to reform themselves or lose out to more effective marketing approaches from upstart independent agencies or product manufacturers.we suggest that anyone responsible for advertising budgets or for developing marketing campaigns will benefit from Cappo's view of the past - and possible future - of advertising.