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Despite the growing gloom in the industry, advertising still works.

I’ve heard in meetings recently that the time has come to start casting the net out wider and cutting advertising budgets. I think in some cases this is true (and plays nicely into our hands being a web marketing company) but to believe that the advertising industry is dead, as some pundits have called it, is foolish.

Advertising is not dead.

It’s not going to die anytime soon.

Marketers must remind themselves that great marketing is all about initiating and maintaining profitable relationships. Figure out how your brand message is different, and then punt it on every channel where you’ll find your target market.

It’s great, and critical, to venture into other channels, but remember that consumers still respond to the same things: authenticity, humour, intelligence. This can be done through all the new media available, but if your key demographic is still reading the news and watching TV, it’s silly to ignore it.

In closing, bear this in mind. According to Nielsen’s report ‘Trust in Advertising’ in Nov. 2007, half of UK consumers, 55% of American consumers, and a whopping 64% of South African consumers still trust advertising.

Fred is the CEO of digital marketing agency World Wide Creative. Fred co-founded The Heavy Chef Project, as well as Ideate, a forum for African entrepreneurs. Fred focuses on online brand building, marketing strategy and loud Hawaiian shirts. Fred is famous for his sartorial excellence, long diatribes about music and fanatical attention to detail when making pizza. Follow Fred on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Fred_Roed