How Mad Men teaches us to be better marketers

Ah, The Golden Age of Advertising.

We’ve seen it chronicled everywhere in popular culture, especially in series like Bewitched and Mad Men.

The 1960s through to the 1980s were a time of big ideas, Martini lunches, and questionable practices.

Now think about your all-time favourite ad. Is it from this current decade? My best guess would be no. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not sh*tting on the current state of our industry at all.

But there was a time when ad creative was the talk of the town.

And this was particularly true when it came to billboards. These beauties were once a work of art. Traffic stopping. Something that would make you stop dead in your tracks and smirk at the utter cleverness of the piece.

Just flick through some old D&AD design and advertising annuals and you’ll see what I mean. In my university days, we were taught that the billboard is the simplest, yet hardest piece of creative to ace.

How does one say so much, yet as little as possible, at the same time? Find the happy medium and you just may have an award-winning spot.

How many poster sites do you walk past on your daily commute? How many of them can you recall? Case in point. In an increasingly digital world, it feels the out of homes that once shone so brightly on the streets are now, well, a bit dull.

Are these relics of advertising past still relevant in a modern context?

What lessons from the Golden Age of Advertising are still relevant to us today?

Every effective campaign starts with one 'big idea.'

The Drum Creative Director George P. Johnson believes classic billboard ads hold many great lessons for marketers.

This is why he suggests going into every campaign imagining you're designing a 48 sheet. (For us digital natives, this is a term for billboard coined during the traditional methods of printing. Back then, they'd use 48 sheets of individual paper to create one big one.)

Nine times out of ten, Johnson reckons it will work across any marketing discipline. Poster, press, digital or even an event stand.

'Whatever you call it and whatever discipline you work in, the old principle of creating a single strong thought (let’s call it an idea) remains essential to producing great, memorable creative work that gets noticed and earns results. And awards.'

This is especially relevant (in my humble opinion), in social media marketing. With attention spans shrinking faster than my dollar’s value in this economy, you need to quickly get your message across and resonate with the audience. You need to convey a strong, clear message that cuts through the shit.

As Johnson says, 'The simplicity of a core key message wins every time.' Which takes us to the next lesson we can learn from traditional advertising.

Simplicity is strength.

Simplicity has and continues to be one of the most important pieces of traditional marketing. This is especially true with print. People did not have the option to click on links, or drop-down menus, or find out more.

If you’re geriatric like me (27 years old,) you may remember the 'It All Started with a Sharpie' ads. This is one of the best examples of simplicity done right that we could ask for.

In the ad, we see raw sketches of a crumpled piece of paper. It soon becomes clear that these are rough versions of the Apple logo, The Rolling Stones lips, The Playboy Bunny.

The message? A marker can be the starting point for anything imaginable.

It's effortlessly conveyed. Especially now, in a world full of noise, using quiet ads like negative space could be a major point of difference.

It's also important to remember, you’re only as good as your brief.

As creatives and creators, we can’t spin straw into gold. (What do I look like, Rumpelstiltskin?)

Johnson believes in asking, no, demanding the best possible brief, whether it’s from your strategists or your client. Delay the final product until you have a winning idea. He says, 'Keep on believing in that one single strong creative thought.'

'That’s what will get you noticed, win you awards, put tonight’s dinner on the table, and if you’re lucky, also get you and your work talked about.'

Johnson isn’t the only 'old dog barking on' about the importance of making ads great again.

Hugh Todd and Dan Dawson’s Podcast and website, Behind the Billboard share similar thought.

We’re currently being sold something at every turn. When we walk, when we watch, when we scroll, when we game.

The fatigue becomes real. It’s like hearing the same joke over and over again. Eventually, that sh*t aint funny. Nearly 74% of social media users say there are too many ads on platforms. 91% believe they’re intrusive.

Most of these ads are what you could call 'creative.' Very little are art.

I believe it’s our job as creatives to learn from the old, and merge it with the new, to create an era where ads are entertaining examples of creative brilliance, and therefore less disruptive.

Food for thought.

-Sophie, Writer