Brands must get back to the basics

Thank God for Les Binet and Peter Field. They seem to be almost single-handedly proving the case for the broad marcoms industry. If you haven’t got your hands on the initial findings of their new report, produced through the IPA, then let me summarise crudely: brands need to invest in paid media and emotive creativity if they want to grow.

Duh. Pretty bloody obvious stuff, huh? Well, perhaps not any more. Mass-market advertising is hardly the exciting new solution favoured by fashionable marketers looking for an edgy (and cheap) strategy and not too bothered about long-term brand-building because, heck, they won’t be hanging around to enjoy the rewards of that.

Even the big beasts of marketing have stumbled. Back in the summer, Procter & Gamble told analysts that it would be increasing its ad budgets for the year ahead, spurred by a dismal 8% slump in sales. Oh, sure, profits were up by a staggering 49%, but marketing investment had been reduced and sales were sliding. Eventually, P&G realised that cost-cutting is not a long-term strategy for growth and the company has now pledged to put money back into "making consumers aware of our products and communicating their benefits". Janet and John marketing, yes, but even the mighty P&G had taken its eye off the basics.

Read more at Campaign Live.