…here’s the proof

I’m sure Sean Brierley succeeded in his intention to wind up both the IPA and ad industry, but did he bring light?

Apparently neither the Barwise book nor the IPA Effectiveness Awards “stand up to close scrutiny”. By those standards, his claim that there is no technique for measuring advertising effectiveness does not stand up to even inter-galactic scrutiny. For several thousand years people have run ads that work because they communicate and deliver what they intend – which is what “effectiveness” means.

Sillier still is his assertion that there should be “an objective measure for how advertising works”. Do we have an objective measure for how a car works? Whoops! All those cars I see outside cannot be working.

Sean does have a point: the extent to which companies should maintain ad spends needs debate but it needs an intelligent debate.

Tim Ambler

London Business School