The old media strategies advertisers used for decades no longer work. Here’s what does!
Traditional advertising, in the form of print, radio, and most notably, television, is far less effective than it used to be. Advertising strategies using only these mediums no longer work. Life After the 30-Second Spot explains how savvy marketers and advertisers are responding with new marketing techniques to get their message out, get noticed, engage their audiences-and increase sales! Covering topics such as viral marketing, gaming, on-demand viewing, long-form content, interactive, and more, the book explains the new avenues marketers and advertisers must use to replace traditional print, TV, and radio advertising-and which strategies are most effective. This book is every marketer’s road map to “new marketing.”
Customer Reviews
Pontification At Its Most Verbose:
The 30 second spot is dead. The 30 second spot is dead! THE 30 SECOND SPOT IS DEAD! Alright, I get it already. At least I did after the first 60 pages or so. Unfortunately this book does not end at 60 pages. Never have so many words been used to say so little.
The first third of this book (plus one chapter online) (parenthesis meant as a tribute to Jaffe) tells you why the 30 second spot is dead. To illustrate the demise of the 30 second spot, Jaffe uses a dead horse and beats it repeatedly.
Perhaps Jaffe is quite funny and clever at a party, but his schtick gets a little old when trudging through 276 pages of his quips (plus one chapter online). Jaffe fashions himself as a modern day Don Rickles, passing out insults to everything and everybody who uses a 30 second spot. Unfortunately, this increases the page count of the book by about 90 pages.
The final two-thirds of the book is a survey of everything you can use instead of the 30 second spot. Jaffe says you have 10 options and he has designed 10 little logos for each of them (which you can see on his website) (again parenthesis meant as a salute to Jaffe). This is not any ground breaking information. If you have been paying attention and made occasional contact with society, you will have realized that you can use the internet as a marketing tool.
Mostly, Jaffe’s observations are re-hashes of stuff you can find in a trade journal or two. And because this is an ADWEEK Book, I suspect most of this stuff was available in an ADWEEK article. The important thing about this survey portion of the book is that it gives you very little insight on how to use these tools more effectively. It’s just Jaffe telling you that you are ignorant if you are not using his 10 alternatives to the 30 second spot.
Save yourself $20 and get a subscription to Adweek instead.
The best digerati marketing book yet:
As a crusty old ad guy, I approach most popular, catchy-titled business books with a mix of skepticism and loathing. Not this one. Jaffe captures the basics of integrated marketing techniques in short, interesting prose, along with asides from some industry leaders worth hearing.
Sure, it’s the basics, but well done. Don’t expect much on how this changes agency profitability models, nor on why so-called “traditional” advertising will remain the primary driver for lots of brands.
The only trouble is that this world is evolving so quickly, this book will be dated inside a year or two. Which merely means you’ll need to know everything Jaffe writes about here–and lots more.
Joe Jaffe get’s it, the agencies don’t. A must read!:
Joe Jaffe has a real handle on New Marketing, he lives it with his book, blog Jaffe Juice and podcast Across The Sound. He is a true leader in this space and I highly recommend that all marketers read his book, his blog and listen to his podcast.
Jay Berkowitz, CEO, www.TenGoldenRules.com
The Future of Advertising is Now:
Joseph Jaffe in his first book lays out the case that traditional advertising is broken and need change in large part to the Internet and rise of consumer generated media. The death of the 30 second spot is in large part do consumer rejection and frustration of ever intrusive ads that aren’t relevant to them. With consumers now in control of when, where, and how they consume media, advertisers must figure out new ways of reaching them without annoying them.
The book is an easy read, though backed up with an impressive arsenal of facts and figures that back up Jaffe’s points. He outlines where advertising has been and where it must go. If you are an advertiser, media producer, agency, or consumer you need to read this book.
Where is the originality?:
I honestly didn’t liked the Life After the 30-second spot, maybe the book was aimed at “beginners” to the world of media and advertising, it seemed like the ideas I was reading were obvious and I was waiting for that punch line where the author was going to tell me something different and original; and that didn’t happened. It is a good book if you are a freshman at college and thinking about studying Communications/Journalism (Advertising, PR, Marketing), but if you are a senior in college, or if you are already involved with advertising/media world, than this book will not give you something new and original. Scale of 1 to 10, i’ll give it 6 (it was very easy to read…i appreciate the author for writing something that was very easy to read)
