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Lies have always formed part of marketing and advertising.

Bob Hoffman, CEO of the advertising agency Hoffmann/Lewis, provides us with a list entitled “5 Lies about Marketing and Advertising.”

Many of us can agree on some of its content and on others no, but it is a fact that it brings enough sincerity, simplicity, and a bit of spice in order to make any topic the center of the debate.

Hoffmann’s 5 lies about marketing and advertising are:

 1. Everyone is Creative.
Good ideas can emerge from anywhere, but it is striking that the good ideas, as well as the bad ones, always come from the same people. And it is not just that not everyone in the world is creative, but also, many people that call themselves “creative” are just not so, says Hoffmann.

2. The Great Idea is Dead.
Digital Marketing has given rise to many stupid ideas, one of which is the concept that many small ideas are better than one big idea. As Hoffmann explains, this is what is known as “making a virtue out of necessity.”

Today the agencies have great difficulty creating original and successful ideas online. Their only defense has been to to assure repeatedly that big ideas are no longer required, and are not appropriate.

3. The Consumer is now the Boss.
This is only a cliché invented to legitimize the new “digital gurus” and their evangelistic crusade.

The truth is that the consumer has always given the orders, the only difference is that now they can make themselves heard from much further away than before. Otherwise, we would be arguing that the consumer before was nothing more than a robot directed by the media.

Second, we find that brands are full of new information about consumers every day, and they can’t do more than the standards guiding this information dictate, creating predictable ideas -as if we all think the same.

4. Online Advertising is Interactive
It is not the fact of being on the web which makes advertising interactive, nor a matter of clicking on an advertisement, either by accident, curiosity, sport, or any other reason for which the web invites us to participate, interact, or live an experience.

For online advertising to be interactive, many factors are required, and CTR is not an answer.

Proper segmentation, a timely choice of media, material development – functional and truly interactive-, as well as an impeccable optimization are key.

5. Everything is Work.
Many traditional agencies postulate that everything is work, but this is not true. Advertising is a complex and unpredictable business and, to be successful, one has to know how to take the correct position in the right moment.

While some agencies base their search for success in cutting stone every day to find a hidden nugget, the most successful agencies help their clients conceive new business, find market niches and create opportunities to generate capital.

My vision is similar to Hoffmann’s, considering that the environment changes, but you are basically based in the same principles; it is about marketing, advertising, creativity, innovation, or life itself- congruence is the main ingredient to achieving an explosion of the best ideas and generating the most successful businesses.

What is your opinion?