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

by Joe Cappo (Author) "Within only a few years, the advertising agency business in the United States has transformed from dozens of independent, entrepreneurial, creative, and highly competitive shops..." (more)
Key Phrases: major holding companies, media buyers, United States, New York, Advertising Age (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Veteran industry observer Joe Cappo briefly recaps the factors that impacted the industry in the late 1990s, and gives you advice on how to best position yourself, your work, and your business.

From the Back Cover

The shape of things to come--and how to stay ahead of the curve in a constantly changing market environment

Advertising ain't what it used to be. Gone are the days of the 15 percent commission, the three martini lunch, and the guaranteed 100 million captive viewers tuning into "Bonanza" every Tuesday night at nine. Today it's all about digital this and virtual that, divide-and-conquer guerilla strategies, and a seemingly endless march of new media, new markets, and new stealth techniques for flying under consumers' radar.

Now The Future of Advertising helps you make sense of it all by giving you a 360-degree view of the state of advertising today and a provocative glimpse into the industry of tomorrow. Industry veteran Joe Cappo offers his priceless analysis of where we are, how we got here, and emerging trends to keep an eye on. You also hear from prominent agency heads, advertisers, brand managers, and creatives who provide their good-as-gold insights, opinions, and anecdotes.

But that's not all. The Future of Advertising also arms you with practical strategies for positioning yourself, your work, and your clients to meet the challenges of an ever-morphing market environment. You get an array of surprisingly straightforward solutions for staying ahead of the curve, including:

• Merging "above-the-line" advertising with "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

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (October 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071462155
• ISBN-13: 978-0071462150
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #741,527 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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

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.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 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.