According to a new YouGov survey consumers across the world think that advertising is getting steadily less effective. In the UK this negative feeling is particularly marked, with just 9% of respondents strongly disagreeing with the statement “Advertising isn’t as interesting as it used to be.”

That’s scary, because, let’s be honest, no-one’s ever really been interested in advertising. It’s just something consumers had to tolerate.

Which is why, traditionally, advertisers knew that they needed to work hard, really hard, to get noticed. And reward the consumer with something that made them laugh, or think. But now they’re not even trying to do that.

How come?

Well, targeting has a lot to do with it; advertisers mistakenly believe that by targeting their work to ‘interested’ individuals the job’s done. They don’t need to try because they’ve already got a captive audience. It’s just about putting an ad in front of the right set of eyeballs.

The problem is that even the most carefully targeted ’interested’ eyeballs are still not that interested in your advertisement. Even if you’re advertising a product that’s quite fun to think about. Like a car or a beer or a chocolate bar say. One thing that definitely won’t make those eyeballs light up is another ad for an income fund.

Yet, unfortunately, the only thing out of that list of products that they actually need is that boring old income fund.

So the challenge facing marketers in the financial services industry is pretty daunting; to make their rather dry, functional, product more interesting than a product that actually is intrinsically interesting.

And the only way to do that is by doing really simple, relatable, creative advertising that’s quick and easy to understand.

Ideally rewarding their kidnapped attention with something which at least provokes thought or raises a smile.
It’s a tall order.

But the good news is that if you do actually do good work it’ll really stand out.