Categories: Podcast

SPOS #327 – Bob Hoffman Is The Ad Contrarian

Welcome to episode #327 of Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast. When was the last time you read a non-fiction business book and laughed out loud? There have been instances where I have smiled, perhaps had an occasional chuckle. The last business book that really made me laugh out loud was Luke Sullivan‘s Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. I came to Bob Hoffman in a very different way. I had heard about this blog, The Ad Contrarian, for some time, but a headline in DigiDay really caught my attention. The article was called, The Ad Contrarian’s Reality Check. And, this is what Hoffman said: "The biggest myth is that the digital ad industry knows what the hell it’s talking about. Almost every ‘expert’ and ‘industry leader’ who has made predictions about digital advertising over the past 10 years has turned out to be wrong. They told us interactivity would make advertising more effective and engaging. It hasn’t. Consumers have shown no inclination to interact with online advertising. They told us traditional advertising was on the way out. Anyone who believes this must have slept through the Olympics. They told us that the DVR was going to devastate the effectiveness of TV advertising. Studies have shown it has had little to no effect on consumer purchasing behavior. They told us the PC and the television were going to converge. They haven’t. They have have had a parade of social media miracle cures that were going to ‘change everything’ — blogs, podcasts, widgets, YouTube, Facebook, games, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Pinterest, QR codes and, of course, now content. Mostly they have turned out to be over-hyped, marginally-to-moderately effective marketing tools that have not been game-changers, as advertised. The digital ad industry is unreliable at best, and irresponsible at worst." Ouch. You can imagine how hungry I was for more. I reached out to Hoffman and asked if he would be a guest on the podcast. He agreed. I also bought both of his books, The Ad Contrarian and 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising. His books were sharp and hilariously funny. I may not always agree with everything Hoffman says, but his content is well worth digging into as his experience and expertise in the advertising industry cannot be denied. Ultimately, if you just want to laugh about how industry evolves, the books are worth the price of admission. Enjoy the conversation…

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast – Episode #327 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Running time: 44:11.
Please send in questions, comments, suggestions – mitch@twistimage.com.
Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
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Six Pixels of Separation the book is now available.
CTRL ALT DEL is coming in Spring 2013.
In conversation Bob Hoffman.
The Ad Contrarian.
The Ad Contrarian book.
101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising.
Hoffman/Lewis (Bob’s agency).
Follow Bob on Twitter.
This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.
Get David’s song for free here: Artists For Amnesty.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast – Episode #327 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.