The Importance of Advertising Education

Mike LonghurstMike LonghurstSenior VP, McCann-Erickson EuropeSenior VP, McCann-Erickson Europe

The age old statements

Advertising is an art not a science You can’t teach advertising It is a creative business isn’t it? Consumers change all the time, so why bother? It is a young people’s game It’s just about personal flair We don’t want others to know how to do it

The Truth

It IS a young people’s game Most older hands are lost before they can plough

back what they know Teaching on the job loses at least 50% of all

knowledge If knowledge is not created, distilled and packaged in

universities for handing on to the next generation, much of it is lost

It IS a young people’s game Most older hands are lost before they can plough

back what they know Teaching on the job loses at least 50% of all

knowledge If knowledge is not created, distilled and packaged in

universities for handing on to the next generation, much of it is lost

So what about Advertising education?

In UK universities we are low-profile

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Management

Business Studies

Media Studies

Marketing

German

Film

TV

Theatre

Dance

Portuguese

Advertising

Courses offeredCourses offered

The reality

Only 12 / 96 recognised universities offer a degree course which contains Advertising

Total courses offered is 53, of which none is solus Advertising

Only one of those is ranked in the top 20 universities Only 2 are in the top 60 13 are from universities that are unranked

UK Graduate intake

53% from top 10 Unis* 92% from top 20* 13% Studied Advertising-related subject*

Very few decided early that Advertising is what they wanted to do

*IPA Stage 1 course graduate survey 2001

Implications

Graduates have a vastly better chance of being taken on by an agency graduate trainee scheme if they:a) went to a top Unib) studied an academic subject, not Advertising

Training courses like IPA try to fill the knowledge gap, but can only be partly successful

Grads historically don’t want structured post-grad qualifications

So are the blind leading the blind?

We complain about our diminished role with clients

Terms of business now little more than ½ what they were

Edged out of boardrooms by management consultancies

Regarded as the “delivery” end of the process, not the intellectual end

Our services bought in auctions, by purchasing departments

The pressure is on us to be more effective

Clients face stiffer competition They demand ever greater accountability They are less trusting of thematic broadcast

advertising Are they right to be?

How effective are we…really?

M&M, Euro Effies, IPA and other awards celebrate the achievements of the minority, not the majority

Most campaigns struggle to demonstrate effectiveness

For every brand that succeeds because of advertising, there might be another that fails because of advertising

And many that succeed despite advertising!

How rigorously are the awards cases studied?

Just reading, collating and publishing achieves little

Where can the lessons be aggregated, analysed and disseminated, if not through universities?

New Initiatives

UK’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has a long history of running great courses

They have now announced a welcome return to Post-grad qualifications after 20 years: Foundation Certificate level

• Check and supplement agency induction processes• Multiple choice questions• Online learning modules

Diploma level• Multi choice modules on theory and practice

And an MBA at Leeds University

EACA has attacked the under-graduate problem

EACA initiative with University of Navarra Aim to create a European curriculum Educational Summit in Barcelona June 2003

Aim to create a profession

Invited all educational institutions

Form Association and publish Journal

I see problems for both

Post-grad is traditionally unpopular with grads Will agency managements demand it?

University courses traditionally suffer from poor teaching Will we be able to change that?

But we need both!

The conundrum

Universities won’t offer

good courses,because agencies

won’t employ the graduates

Agencies won’t employ the graduates because universities

don’t offer good courses

Meanwhile we live in challenging times for brands

As the public face of brands, advertising has also become a target

Advertising a scapegoat, panacea, cheap shot

Demands for more laws, codes, regulations

The search for cheap easy solutions focuses on advertising

Consumption

Deprivation

Inequality

Young drinking

Obesity

What “they” say about advertising

Exploits children

Damages the environment

Creates waste

Promotes sexism

Encourages greed and envy

Destroys indigenous lifestyles

Destroys “Southern” industries

Creates visual pollution….

So?

Advertising is seen as part of every problem, not part of every solution

Advertising is seen as a disposable element, not essential to economic wellbeing

This is even more so amongst the young, who we depend on for new blood

So?

A lot of people want to stop what we do

The best don’t want to join us and assist what we do

Most of what is said about advertising is wrong…why?

We have tolerated or even fostered mythology

We have ignored proper education in our business

Both within advertising practitioners and outside

Conspiracy theories that were destroyed many years ago have re-surfaced as new

Vance Packard’s “Hidden Persuaders” Vance Packard’s “Hidden Persuaders” comes back as regularly as “Who killed comes back as regularly as “Who killed Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe?” theoriesKennedy or Marilyn Monroe?” theories

The same thinking is being applied to new The same thinking is being applied to new mediamedia

Advertising is seen as the irresistible force The consumer is the defenceless victim

Why can’t we simply prove them wrong?

Because we often aren’t clear on the answers ourselves

And we are working against low knowledge and high scepticism of advertising outside the business

Yet everyone experiences advertising and everyone has an opinion

Conclusions

In many respects we aren’t impressing anyone as much as we think

Recruits Clients Opinion-leaders Legislators

Conclusions

The traditional idea that “You can’t teach Advertising” is false

Our business needs the academic influence and disciplines

It will not kill creativity

Conclusions

The advertising business needs to achieve a better balance between Art and Science

It needs to build the Art onto the Science, not add a bit of Science to the Art

Education is our only way forward.

Thank You