On the first line of the first page of Jack Scissors and Roger Baron’s “Advertising Media Planning” (Seventh Edition) text book you will find this quote: “Throughout history, the form of mass media has been determined and limited by the technology of the age.”

Never have these words meant more than in today’s ever fracturing media landscape. It seems that each year a new technology promises to change content consumption as we know it – (iPhone, Kindle, iPad – etc…). Given the amount of industry buzz and media attention that is devoted to these new technologies you would think that by now the majority of ad dollars would be devoted to reaching consumers in these cutting edge venues – if not the majority, certainly a significant portion – right?

It’s very fashionable to talk about digital advertising and about how “that’s the way everything is going” – but despite all the discussion and all the buzz, recent estimates put digital ad spending at only 6% of total ad expenditure. Important still to recognize that in this measure, “digital” consists of all digital channels including Paid Search, which makes up a large chunk of online spending.

Why is it that we spend so much time talking about how quickly things are changing and about how new technology is going to change advertising when this fast change happens so slowly!

The Slow Pace of Fast Change
Tagged on: