作者：Derek Walker 
编译：文静
原载：广告时代网站www.adage.com

作者简介：
Derek Walker，广告行业的专业观察者，在哥伦比亚的南卡罗来纳州有一家自己的公司，名字为brown and browner advertising。

编者按：
这些年，不少牛掰的广告人在一片唏嘘与惋惜中驾鹤西去了，不少经典的传统广告一遍又一遍地被翻出来。当人们缅怀令人崇敬的故人，在怀旧的气息中品味经历了岁月打磨的传统广告时，也有着故人与作品不能再的怅惘。通常一个行业内的优秀者的离去也意味着那个时代行业特征的终结。几年就有人下了“广告已死”的论断，如果广告已死，那么让这些奋斗在广告行业里的广告人情何以堪？如果广告依然青春活力，那么为何总能听到这样的声音？

广告是典型的擅长新陈代谢的领域，有一些东西在消亡，也有一些新的东西被拉进来。它可以褪掉之前的死皮重新注入新的生命。在新技术飞速发展的大环境下，广告行业的性质决定它永远不可能落后。只是当广告开始不断向前发展的时候，那些拘泥于传统广告的人便认定“广告已死”，而另一部分人则认为尽管广告的形式一直在不断变化，但初衷和最终目的始终都没有改变，广告的定义依旧奏效。因此广告永远都是广告。

在“广告时代”的网站中，我们发现了这样一篇文章，作者通过模拟客户与广告代理商的幽默对话来阐述“广告永远都是广告，不会改变的观点”。也许，广告的未来还是不是广告，区别只是一个称呼的问题。

代理商：我们在重新塑造广告的涵义和范畴！

客户：真的？为啥？

代理商：因为以前用的老套方法不是那么管用，不给力了。

客户：但我们的品牌就是用广告建立起来的呀，你还白话啥？

代理商：没错，但有了全新的广告服务内容，您现在可以做比以前给力很多的事情。

客户：那你说说……

代理商：啊，好的。是这样的，消费者现在更聪明了，更见多识广了，他们现在讨厌被动接受商品。

客户：那消费者以前是喜欢这样？

代理商：也不是，但现在会大有不同。

客户：那会咋样呢？

代理商：这样，我们不打算去直接卖产品，而是准备去谈论产品能为消费者做什么。

客户：听着不赖。那广告过去没这么做么？

代理商：在做，但是我们现在会做的更好！
 
客户：不至于吧。现在要跟以前有啥不同？
 
代理商：我们要少做强制性广告，少露脸——我们要给消费者权利。
 
客户：厄~~怎么个意思？
 
代理商：就是说我们要给消费者主动权，让消费者来决定要不要接受产品信息，怎样与品牌互动。

客户：哦，这样啊。但光做这个，我们怎样推进产品呢？
 
代理商：亮点就在这，不用您来操心。因为它不是关于销售的事儿，而是关于与消费者建立的关系问题。
 
客户：等会儿，这不是我们以前花钱找你做的事儿么？

代理商：厄……，是。但是现在我们做的更牛逼。
 
客户：最好这样。说真的，我到现在为止还是没看出来这跟你们以前干的活儿有多大区别。
 
代理商：我们以后会提供一个消费者怎样与品牌互动的套路。

客户：你以前已经跟我说过这套路了。你的意思是说以前的套路狗屁不通么？

代理商：不，当然也是了。但现在的这个套路会更精确。会细化到你能知道有多少人正在阅读你的产品，他们正在说啥，他们在哪儿谈论产品，还有他们对你的产品和品牌有怎样的印象。我们能够跟踪他们在网上的任何痕迹。

客户：跟踪他们？那不是比以前更具侵犯性么？

代理商：也不能这么说。用新的App程序植入在智能手机乃至其他所有的手机上，人们对被追踪不会有啥想法。

客户：如果我们在关注、追踪他们，那怎么给他们更多的主动权呢？

代理商：我们关注但是不控制消费者的对话，他们自己就会做出相应的行动！
 
客户：要是他们说我们的坏话咋办？下一步会该咋办？我们该怎么应付？
 
代理商：随他们的便。我们早就参与到对话中了。但在大多情况下如果我们已经和他们建立了忠诚的follow，他们就会跟我们交流。

客户：那他们要是不这么做呢？
 
代理商：那就由我们说。
 
客户：行吧。但是这个它怎么就不是广告呢？

代理商：这比广告好的多！
 
客户：真TM有意思，那照你这么说在你的这些论断结果上，我们现在就得付你钱喽。

代理商：哎不不，不是这个意思。您可别这么说啊。

看，大家都明白。  在服务上总是有太多的公司跟我们处于相同的水平，将我们自己建立成一个与众不同的的服务提供商有时是很困难的。因此我们最终会停止称呼自己为“广告代理商”，转而正式宣布广告已死或者我们正在重塑，或者重新定义广告，但我们真的是在致力于做这些么？

我不清楚。

关于广告的一种定义为：“通过告知的方式唤起公众的注意力，尤其是通过付费告知的行为”。

这种定义是怎样改变的？它并没有改变。广告的运转与投放系统一直在改变，而广告一直还是原来的广告。

广告是一个始终不断变化的产业，总是在寻找新的方式与消费者对话。
 
广告会在广播里投放，在电视上投放，它产生于科技给我们提供作更多调研的时代，并且现在正在以数字的形式呈现。这是行业的性质。
 
那么，我们现在在做与以前不同的事情么？因为我们听到的或者看到的、体验到的每一件事都在告诉我，我们依然在做广告。甚至在社交媒介领域，客户依旧付费给代理公司来提升产品，服务或者品牌知名度和美誉度。
 
如果你声明你在重塑或者重新定义广告，那么准备好怎么告诉大家。否则它听起来就是无稽之谈。客户并不迟钝，早晚有一天你会为你所谓的要做与众不同的事情付出代价，你必须要履行你的承诺。
 
你想从其他的广告代理公司和广告专业公司中区别出来，那就要做更好的服务，提供更好的点子，给客户有创意的方案来迎合他们的需求。
 
就是这么简单，也是这么难。

放眼整个行业，如果我们花费足够多的精力和时间像构想怎样重塑、改变或者重新定义广告那样尽力去做出更好的成绩，我们不需要说太多，工作成果自然就有了说服力。

广告因其定义的缘故不会被革新，重塑或者重新定义。广告永远都将是广告。

在当前，我们如何做好广告才是一个问题。

原文：
Agency: We’re reinventing advertising!

Client: Really? Why?

Agency: Because the old ways don’t work. They’re broken.

Client: But we built our brand with advertising.

Agency: Yeah, but you can do much more now.

Client: Tell me more . . .

Agency: Consumers are smarter, more sophisticated, they hate being sold to.

Client: And consumers in the past liked being sold to?

Agency: Not really, but this is different.

Client: How so?

Agency: We’re not going to sell the product. Instead we’re going to talk about what the product can do for them!

Client: Interesting. And advertising didn’t do this in the past?

Agency: It did, but we’re doing this better!

Client: You don’t say. What’s going to be different?

Agency: We’re going to be less intrusive, less in their face -- we’re giving the consumer the power.

Client: Uh, uh-huh. What does that mean?

Agency: That means we’ll let the consumer control the message and how they interact with the brand.

Client: OK, but how do we move product?

Agency: That’s the beauty of it, you don’t. It isn’t about selling; it is about building a relationship with the customer.

Client: Wait a minute, wasn’t that what we were paying you to do before?

Agency: Uh, yeah. But now we’re going to do it better!

Client: We hope so. I still don’t see that big of a difference!

Agency: We’ll be able to provide real metrics as to how people are interacting with the brand.

Client: You gave us metrics before. Are you saying they weren’t real?

Agency: No, they were real, but these are even more accurate. We can tell you what people are reading about your product, what they are saying, where they are saying it and how they feel about your company and product. We can track them wherever they go on the web.

Client: "Track them?" Isn’t that more intrusive than before?

Agency: Not really, with the new apps, smart phones and all, people are OK with being tracked.

Client: And how is this giving them more control if we’re watching and tracking them?

Agency: We watch but we don’t control the conversation, the consumers do!

Client: What if they start saying bad things about us? What then?

Agency: You let them. We’ll already be part of the conversation but in many cases if we have built up a loyal following, they will speak up for us.

Client: And if they don’t?

Agency: Then we speak up.

Client: Okay, but how is this not advertising?

Agency: It is better than advertising!

Client: Interesting, does this mean that we will now be paying you based on results?

Agency: Uh, no.

Please.

Look, we all get it. There’s so much parity in the services that we offer that it is difficult sometimes for us establish ourselves as special or different. So, we stop calling ourselves "advertising agencies." We proclaim advertising is dead or we announce that we are "reinventing" or "redefining" advertising, but are we?

I’m not sure.

One of the definitions of advertising is: "The action of calling something to the attention of the public, especially by paid announcement."

How is this definition changing? It isn’t. The delivery systems for advertising are changing. They always are.

Advertising is an industry that’s always in flux, always looking for new and more effective ways to speak with consumers.

It happened with radio, it happened with TV, it happened when technology allowed us to do better research, and it is happening now with digital. It is the nature of our business.

Are we doing something all that different? Because from everything I hear or read or experience, we are still doing advertising. Even in the social-media realm, clients are still paying agencies to promote their product, service or brand

If you claim that you are changing or reinventing or redefining advertising then be prepared to tell people how. Otherwise, it sounds like a lot of smoke and mirrors. Clients aren’t slow. Sooner or later you’re going have to do more than talk about doing things differently, you’re going to have to do it.

You want to differentiate yourself from other agencies and advertising professionals, do better work -- produce better results! Offer clients creative solutions that meet their needs.

It’s really that simple -- and that hard.

If we as an industry spent as much energy and time trying to deliver better work to our clients as we do talking about how we’re reinventing, changing or redefining advertising we wouldn’t have to say a word. The work would speak for itself.

Advertising by its definition cannot be revolutionized, redefined or reinvented. It will always be advertising.

Now, how we do advertising is a different matter.