Following the news that Meta announced its first-ever quarterly decline, many ‘old school’ marketers are claiming that digital marketing is losing its prominence and effectiveness in the industry.
According to Bloomberg, many traditional marketers are proclaiming that the IOS14 changes are making it harder for industry professionals to understand the point of conversation with consumers, especially with Snap Inc and Twitter displaying similar financial situations to Meta.
Marketers that set up prior to 2011 are claiming that ‘math men’ (data scientists) are struggling to predict consumer behaviour and that ‘Mad Men’ style marketing is making a comeback.
However, Sam Gormley of Osaka Labs, a leading London digital agency, has branded these claims as false and believes they are based on ‘incredibly misleading data’.
“Maybe there has been a 19% increase in billboard sales in the past year… which we are comparing to a period in time where literally nobody left the house,” he said.
“So now we are out again, let’s consider that 19% growth from a time of lockdown is still actually small – given that they’re providing annual comparisons. Yearly budgets were not going to spend money on out of home billboards (as nobody left their home during COVID and more people are out of their house now… so of course they’d go up – and 19% isn’t really significant considering the world’s position now compared to a year ago.”
READ MORE: Skip this ad? Generation Z are ignoring ads at all costs
Gormely thinks that digital markets are shifting as opposed to dying.
“Whilst Meta made a loss of 1%, Amazon made an 18% increase! It’s not dying, it’s just that money is going in two different directions, more to purchase. People are trying to get through a recession, so money is flowing to the point of sale rather than brand awareness (like Coca Cola) which in turn is getting people over the line. Essentially, money will go elsewhere, so less of a focus on Meta (Facebook) and more on a focus on TikTok GenZ platforms.”
“Reactive marketing is essential – no brands should be ‘setting and forgetting’ their ads or planning strategies into the future with no plans to adjust as needed.”
Click here to sign up to Marketing Beat’s free daily email newsletter
