Is a poor image of advertising keeping new recruits at bay?
ZenithOptimedia’s Richard Shotton uses new research to examine students’ perception of advertising – and how an unethical image is undermining the drive to attract new recruits to the industry.
The summer is a crucial time for creative and media agencies as they try to recruit the highest calibre graduates. However, agencies aren’t just competing between themselves. Advertising competes for the best talent with the sky-high salaries of banking, the intellectual rigour of academia and the creative appeal of the arts.
Unfortunately, there is evidence that some job seekers are put-off a career in advertising by its tarnished ethical image. ZenithOptimedia recently conducted a survey amongst 504 students into which careers they thought benefited society most. Of the six sectors monitored advertising was ranked last.
Only 19% thought that advertising was beneficial to society – coming in just behind estate agents (25%) – and far behind sectors such as law (70%).
Ironically, for a sector dedicated to image building, we have allowed our own to be sullied.
In order to improve the sector’s image, we need to promote the three key benefits of advertising. Firstly, the impact of advertising on the price of goods. Unfortunately, three-quarters of the students we surveyed believed that advertising made goods a little or lot more expensive.
However, the most authoritative study in this area, conducted by the US Federal Trade Commission, found that advertising actually reduced prices.
[advert position=”left”]
They compared the cost of glasses in states where advertising by optometrists was allowed against those where it wasn’t. They found that identical glasses cost 30-40% more in states where ads were banned.
This may seem counter-intuitive but why would brands bother to reduce their prices if they’re not allowed to shout about it to new customers?
Secondly, advertising ensures news is available to people regardless of their income. Advertising spend is used by media owners to subsidise their cover prices. The benefits of a well-read press can’t be overstated as it helps keep the powerful in check. As Brandeis, Justice of the US Supreme Court, said: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
That disinfectant can only keep our society clean if it is widespread.
Finally, the effectiveness of products is as much to do with the expectations that advertising creates as their physical make-up. Advertising doesn’t just improve the taste of Coke and Pepsi, it even makes painkillers more powerful.
Alan Branthwaite and Peter Cooper conducted a double blind test, which appeared in the British Medical Journal, which looked at the effectiveness of branded versus unbranded pills.
The results were clear-cut. Branded painkillers were 30% more effective in reducing pain than unbranded tablets with the same ingredients. Critics may dismiss these effects as illusory but if a user finds a product more effective surely that is the only criterion that matters?
If we are to continue to attract the best talent into the industry we need to promote the societal benefits of our profession. We need to spend more time, effort and energy ‘advertising advertising’.
Richard Shotton is head of insight at ZenithOptimedia
Twitter: @rshotton