Since our inception, the Cult Collective has been very vocal about three main grievances with the advertising industry.

1) We believe most business problems will not be solved with better communications. Rather, marketers must overcome their unholy love affair with advertising and start focusing resources on behaviors that actually matter.

2) We believe most ad agencies do not act with integrity. They are more interested in entertaining consumers for their own creative benefit rather than engaging people in a manner that drives sustainable sales

We believe most ad agencies do not act with integrity.

3) We believe paid media is woefully overfunded, the media buying industry is fraught with unethical behaviour, and buying media practices involving commissions is unjustifiable

However, after reading this report on a recent panel discussion at Cannes (http://www.wsj.com/articles/advertising-isnt-dead-but-market-is-changing-1466610850), we’ve decided to add a fourth grievance to our list:

4) Most advertising sucks

At Cannes, amongst advertising’s biggest advocates, at the industry’s crown jewel event, a panel of insiders and experts seemingly agreed with the statement that “99.5% of advertising is crap”. Rather than dispute the assertion, most seem to willingly acknowledge only .5% of advertising today is worth seeking out.

“99.5% of advertising is crap”

Houston, we have a problem.

If you are a brand manager, do you have a business challenge that requires improvement to product offerings, service delivery, customer service, shopping experience, etc., or is your challenge best solved with better advertising? If you believe advertising is the appropriate fix, then…

Do you believe your advertising agency is acting in your best interest? Are their recommendations perfectly tailored for your unique business challenge, or are they providing super fun ideas likely to win them a Creative award? If the former, then…

Are there alternative ways to tell your story to your target audience? Or, does the concept require significant paid media expense order to be viable? If the later, then…

Will the execution of the concept be amongst the .5% of advertising in the world that is produced well enough to be noticed and appreciated?

If you’re not feeling 100% confident that you have the right strategy, right partners, right media approach, or right Creative execution, we should have a chat. I know some people who may be able to help.