Why advertising often fails and how to improve it

I spoke to a new client recently and asked how they found me. Their answer? “A friend told me about you.” Not Google. Not an ad. Not a fancy campaign. Just good old word of mouth. It was a reminder that no matter how advanced marketing becomes, people still value trust and personal experience more than anything else. In business, your best marketing team might just be your happiest clients.

We’re living through a massive shift in marketing — one that’s quietly changing everything. For decades, advertising was about attention. Now, it’s about alignment. People don’t just buy from brands anymore ; they follow the ones that reflect what they believe in. The ones that sound human. The ones that feel like them. And that’s why the most effective marketing today doesn’t come from billboards or perfectly scripted commercials — it comes from creators. Real people who live the same realities as their audiences. Who talk like them, think like them, and show up with genuine conviction. At Young Origins, we’ve been studying this shift closely, the rise of what we call The Relatable Revolution. It’s not about selling. It’s about resonating. We just put together a short free resource called “The Three Laws of the Relatable Revolution”, breaking down how small brands can leverage authentic storytelling and human connection to compete in 2025’s creator-driven world. If you’re a founder or marketer trying to make your brand matter not just be seen this is for you.

The circle jerk that's killing good advertising: The agency knows that the client will want creative control. They're prepared hand it over. The client knows they will receive mediocre work. So they are prepared to micromanage. No one asks the hard questions. No one actually bounces ideas (because you can't bounce anything when everyone's busy being a sycophant to their boss) Why would anyone break this cycle? When you can just write the most flattering version of reality and post it here for engagement? Welcome to 1984. The capitalist version. This is triple jeopardy. And that's why marketing in autonomy-repressed cultures are on a downward spiral. Dharini Sorokin and I try to break this down in our first video chat. Check it out on brandfetish.substack.com.

I think you put so much in advertising, but not the actual Content/Product.... When you Consider the 6° of Separation and Advertising, Let's say you have: A. 10 Million impressions B. 700 000 views/clicks C. 800 comments/buy These numbers are good if your product is of High Quality. Because this 1% will tell everyone about How good your product is. But they'll have the opposite effect if your product is not good. It's not Business Entirely but Sciences.

I don't know anything about advertising. But surely there's a strand in advertising theory in which it's recognised that relentless, infuriating, intrusive repetition of a hollow generic message has an inverse impact on a 'potential' 'customer's' likelihood to go anywhere near said product or service... Especially when such a 'promotion' is adversely impacting a customer's use of the very platform on which the promotion is appearing (relentlessly)? 🤔

💪 The most powerful word in marketing? It’s not “free.” 
It’s not “exclusive.”
 It’s not even “now.” It’s… 𝐘𝐎𝐔. 💡 Think about it. When someone watches your video… they want to feel like you’re speaking directly to them. As if they’re the only person in the world. And that message? Was made just for them. That’s the magic of YOU. For years in advertising and TV promotion, nothing worked better than that one word. It personalizes. It connects. It drives engagement. And yes — it even boosts your calls to action: “Download YOUR free guide.” “Get YOUR results today.” So before you hit publish, take a minute to read your next post aloud. How many times did you say “I” or “we”? And how many times did you say YOU? ✨ Add a little YOU magic. Your audience will appreciate…  YOU. 😊 How often do you say, YOU?

Traditional Marketing Is Dying and Here’s Why. There was a time when marketing meant flyers, billboards, radio jingles, and TV commercials. It worked because people watched TV together, read newspapers every morning, and paid attention to what brands said. But today, the world has changed. Our attention has shifted to screens we hold in our hands. We skip ads, block pop-ups, and scroll past anything that doesn’t connect instantly. Traditional marketing isn’t just fading it’s losing relevance in the age of attention. People don’t want to be sold to anymore. They want to be understood. They trust real stories, reviews, creators, and relatable experiences not polished taglines or staged commercials. This doesn’t mean traditional marketing has no value. It means the strategy has to evolve. Brands that blend creativity with data, storytelling with strategy, and human connection with digital innovation are the ones that win today. The future belongs to those who understand this shift — from broadcasting to building relationships. Because marketing is no longer about visibility, it’s about meaningful connection. #DigitalMarketing #BrandStrategy #MarketingTrends #ContentCreation #SocialMedia #GrowthMindset

I attended an interesting event yesterday - "Advertising - Who Cares?" and it presented a great deal of work done on identifying how the entire advertising industry could & should be doing better. Some ideas seem plausibly beneficial, if challenging...but one of them, to promote more broadcast-style advertising (yes, a bit more like "in the old days") rather than the endless 1-to-1 marketing is, I fear, DOA. I've just read this sobering article by Derek Thompson: https://lnkd.in/eVfuMX7K in which he describes the prevailing environment of the constant video (often, not always, short form) drip feed *deliberately requested* by the individual consumer. Amongst the many well-worn aphorisms yesterday, one that could have been usefully added is Sutton's Law (https://lnkd.in/ezsny7j4) - why do advertisers spend so much with the big platforms? Because that's where the users are...

“The biggest mistake in marketing: talking louder instead of deeper.” We’ve entered an era where every brand screams for attention— “Buy this!” “Try that!” “Look at us!” But consumers have evolved. They don’t want louder marketing; they want meaningful marketing. Today’s audience can sense authenticity in a single sentence. They can scroll past a brand that doesn’t sound human in half a second. Real marketing isn’t about noise; it’s about narrative. It’s about building a story so strong that when people hear your name, they don’t think “advertisement,” they think “value.” Don’t chase visibility. Build depth. Because in a world full of shouters, the ones who whisper truth are remembered the longest.

One of the most critical ways you can utilize your marketing agency is to transition out of the pattern of anecdotal decision making into data-driven choices. Maybe you use a particular social media platform in a certain way- so you assume your customers do as well. Maybe you heard one piece of client feedback and it has informed your entire workflow. Maybe someone complimented a content piece and you've never gone back through it with a critical eye. Without realizing it, you've let singular pieces of information guide important decisions for your strategy, never stopping to question whether your paradigm accurately reflects the majority of your users. The right agency partner can, as journalists say, teach you how to kill your darlings.