The Former Future of Advertising II

I also recently finished reading Joe Cappo's 2003 book The Future of Advertising, which was published in conjunction with AdAge. When I emailed Joe in thanks for his book, his response solely poked fun at my name, but I'll try not to hold that against him.

More recent than Richard Adler's The Future of Advertising, the book is slightly more up to date and meets a very different need. So what did I get out of Cappo's tome?

Subtitled "New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age," the book does well to address and expand on the different aspects of what online advertisers work with. I found Cappo's writing about agency consolidation, the death of the commission structure, the bottom-line role advertising plays (especially the bit on "below-the-line" marketing), the allure of ad awards, and the need for integrated marketing to be of particular interest. I was less impressed by his commentary on the changing media landscape and potential role of new technology, but that's little surprise given the age of the book.

I can't find Cappo's web site right now, but the last time I looked, it didn't look like he'd done a lot since the book. That's OK. But it'd be great if people writing books about the future of advertising kept a hand in the business. I'm sure he has, but given his Google absence, it's not a strong hand.

And that's what we need to build a strong industry: strong hands.