When advertising doesn't pay

On page 115 of the November - December 2007 issue of Adobo Magazine, Nielsen came out with a listing of the top 20 Philippine advertisers for the first nine months of the year.

The adspend listing was not surprising. We are all to familiar with the advertising giants whose shampoos, soaps, milks and cellular phone services dominate the media landscape: Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, Unilab, Colgate Palmolive, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, Globe and Smart.

What caught my attention though was the identity of the advertisers ranked 11th, 12th and 19th: Office of the President, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Pagcor respectively.

These three government agencies have so far spent a whopping P3.25 billion pesos in media placements! All in the first nine months of the year!That's more than P360 million a month!

Can you imagine how many low cost housing units P360 million can build? How many more mouths that can feed? How many more classrooms it can construct?

(Okay, disclaimer here. I've been involved in advertising long enough to know that adspend figures are based on rate cards. To arrive at a more accurate figure, deduct anywhere from 15 to 30% to account for discounts based on volume and other financing schemes.)

Alarming too was the increase in adspend from the year previous. If my math serves me right (and it usually doesn't so please feel free to use a calculator), these three government agencies spent more than 50% more in advertising this year. The Office of the President alone has already doubled its adspend from last year!

And what results does the government have to show for all these money spent on "painting a better and fairer picture of the president's work" (Not my words, mind you. That's straight from the Office of the Press Secretary)?

In it's Fourth Quarter 2007 Social Weather Survey released last 18 December, SWS reported a sharp drop in GMA's approval rating. From a negative 4 in February to a negative 16 in December 2007.

Quitely simply: despite spending at least 50% more in 2007, the approval rating of the president plunged 400% in a period of nine months!

Clearly, in this case at least, advertising does not pay.

With due respect to the ad agencies and personalities involved in these accounts, it's not the advertising that is at fault.

Advertising is just a tool. A communication tool that when used properly can help deliver the product's promise to the right target market.

In this case, the fault clearly lies in the product itself. No matter how catchy a jingle is, no matter how well directed a TVC is, no matter how eye catching a visual is, if the product stinks, and more importantly, if the target market is already convinced that it stinks, then advertising is clearly not the answer.