Product Description

The old media strategies advertisers used for decades no longer work. Here's what does!
Traditional advertising, in the form of print, radio, and most notably, television, is far less effective than it used to be. Advertising strategies using only these mediums no longer work. Life After the 30-Second Spot explains how savvy marketers and advertisers are responding with new marketing techniques to get their message out, get noticed, engage their audiences-and increase sales! Covering topics such as viral marketing, gaming, on-demand viewing, long-form content, interactive, and more, the book explains the new avenues marketers and advertisers must use to replace traditional print, TV, and radio advertising-and which strategies are most effective. This book is every marketer's road map to "new marketing."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #448537 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Booklist
Jaffe, marketing consultant and former advertising executive, issues a clarion call to abandon the old rules of marketing and wake up to new opportunites. He cites as a root problem the lack of imagination in big agencies (which may not endear him to former agency colleagues!). He offers several lists that help us understand his road map for change, such as major trends that should inspire smart marketers, including the need for 24/7/365 service to customers on their terms--and, through wireless, consumers are always connected and accessible, no matter where they are. The author presents 10 bold alternatives to traditional advertising, which include the Internet, video games that go beyond child's play, word-of-mouth advertising in which communities have the power to build brands, and reckoning with search engines, gatekeepers to online activity. In this excellent book, the author offers thought-provoking insight and advice on how to effectively serve the changing customer. Although not all readers will agree with Jaffe, they ignore him at their peril. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“…challenges proven thinking in a very digestible form” (Brand Strategy, 5th December 2005)

"…an excellent read, witty and enlightening. A must read, particularly for clients and those in the creative community." (Media Week, 20th September 2005)

"...a bold mix of alternatives to traditional advertising and a set of new, revolutionary concepts that advertisers and marketers can follow for years to come." (Customer Relationship Management, 1st September 2005)

From the Inside Flap
In March of 2005, the Pepsi-Cola Company announced that they would be reintroducing Pepsi One diet cola with one major twist—no 30-second spots. Instead the campaign would include events (see Chapter 14), online films (see Chapters 11 and 15) and other alternatives to traditional advertising such as trading cards.

Traditional advertising—led by its poster child, the 30-second television spot—is dead, dying, or in dire need of a shot in the arm. Take your pick, depending on which point of the spectrum you find yourself. And if none of the choices apply, you may very well be in a state of denial. If so, then you'd better read on.

It's true. The times are changing, and the tried-and-true media strategies that advertisers have used for decades no longer work quite so well. Old-school ad campaigns focused mainly on print, radio, and, in particular, television aren't nearly as effective as they once were. You can blame it on too many TV channels, the Internet, TiVo, empowered and savvy consumers, or anything else that sounds good. But if you're an advertiser, you'd better find alternatives to traditional media—or find an alternative profession.

This is the blueprint for anyone searching for fresh, revolutionary ways to get their message out beyond traditional media. Life After the 30-Second Spot reveals how today's brightest marketers are using new tactics to engage consumers and new avenues to take the place of TV, radio, and print. New Marketing guru Joseph Jaffe looks at what works and what doesn't, and covers hot topics like on-demand viewing, viral marketing, gaming, branded entertainment, and experiential marketing. Proactive and prescriptive, he offers real-world solutions for advertisers struggling to master the new rules of the ad game.

Jaffe begins by examining what's wrong with media today and reveals why the 30-second spot is presumed dead. But media isn't the only thing that has changed; consumers have too. Smarter and more suspicious than ever, they tune out advertising and change the channel at the first note of a jingle. Jaffe looks at what some marketers are doing to connect with these new consumers, and reveals what the new marketing reality means for branding, advertising, and the advertising agency itself. Finally, he explores in depth ten new nontraditional approaches that are changing the face of advertising, and provides commentary on each tactic from some of today's brightest marketers and advertisers.

The 30-second spot is on its last leg, but advertising isn't. Life After the 30-Second Spot challenges marketers and advertisers to reinvent themselves for marketing's new reality, and provides unique, practical, and actionable solutions that really work. There is a firm line between surviving and thriving—on which side will you find yourself?

Customer Reviews

Here's my review from the CMA - Canadian Marketing Association - Website
I reviewed this over at the CMA - Canadian Marketing Association - Website and I thought it was appropriate to post it here as well...

Life After The 30-Second Spot

You should own this book. I don't even know you, but I know enough that if you're reading this, you are somehow involved in advertising, marketing and communications and that means that you (and everyone you know in this space) should be clutching a copy of Life After The 30-Second Spot - Energize Your Brand with a Bold Mix of Alternatives to Traditional Advertising by Joseph Jaffe. If you employ people or know someone studying our world, they should be forced to read this book before starting their first day on the job. My guess is, this is the one book most marketers wished they had written (I know I wish I had written it) or are scared to read.

You're right, that's a strong statement to make - especially about a book - but it is well deserved.

Jaffe points a sniper rifle at the advertising world and picks off great (and new) opportunities one at a time. By identifying ten quick wins and how to execute them (or, at least, why you should be paying attention to them), Jaffe shines as a marketer who is more inclined to grow a business organically than hop on the word-of-mouth buzz-hype of the moment (which usually results in a quick jump up in brand lift and then a much sharper drop down to irrelevance).

How often have advertising agencies pulled clients aside and proposed a gaming, experiential or branded entertainment program? It's not always an easy subject for marketers to broach with their clients. Now, thanks to Life After The 30-Second Spot, you have the manual. Jaffe does not provide all of the gory details and answers, but there are enough insights to spark your curiosity and construct a long-term plan that works.

So, is the 30-second spot really dead, or is this Jaffe's marketing shtick to get you reading? "Consumers aren't as stupid as they used to be," Jaffe muses. "Rumors of its (the 30-second spot) demise may very well be exaggerated, but they are irrelevant. Using the 30-second spot today is like taking a wooden sword to fight a fire-breathing dragon. You better have fire insurance."

That "fire-breathing dragon" is you and me. Life After The 30-Second Spot follows the same logic path as anyone who is following Web 2.0, Listenomics and Brand Democratization. It's getting harder and harder to jam 30-seconds of original exaggeration into a push channel that people hardly care about anymore. We're all off IM'ing each other as we create a MySpace and Blog about how bad the new screens are on the iPod Nano.

Jaffe uses many real-life examples of brands and companies to highlight the success of people who have already dared, and mixes in his own clever writing pace and humor to keep the book from going dry with academic marketing slang - he's a cunning linguist. If you're looking for that New-Year's-resolution-to-start-reading book, look no further than Life After The 30-Second Spot... it may even make you reconsider some of your marketing-related resolutions for 2006.

Final note: I got Life After The 30-Second Spot for free from Joseph Jaffe. I heard him speak here in Montreal and signed up to be a part of his UNM2PNM - Use New Marketing to Prove New Marketing program. If I did not love Life After The 30-Second Spot, I would have said so. This really is a must-read.

Reviewed by:
Mitch Joel
Twist Image

Fantastic Book for Teaching the Contemporary Media Business
"Life After the 30-Second Spot" is an excellent book for those not only in the corporate media world but for students who will be tomorrow's leaders. It is a engaging, jargon-free, and practical primer on the power of branding in today's media-saturated world that can serve the disciplines of film and television studies, communication, and business.

It is not enough for students to study the media as independent entities or media texts as having some kinds of universal and unilateral meaning handed down by corporations and marketers. Joseph Jaffe makes it clear that consumers have greater empowerment over their media habits than any other time in history and the media world better beware! Today's consumers are more fickle, disloyal, and connected so it is best that students (who embody the early range of the 18-34 advertising sweet-spot)start thinking early about themselves and their future career plans. This book accomplishes just that.

Jaffe intelligently demonstrates how media clutter, fragmentation, and proliferation have changed the way that coprporations conduct their business for new patterns of consumption. To deliver reach and audiences, he suggests that products need to be brands, multi-platform goods and services available twenty-four hours a days at a variety of touch points. It's all about content now and students can realize from this book the range of opportunities currently available in the media industries for creative and financial gain.

I strongly recommend this book over any other book that deals with the integration of entertainment and advertising. Jaffe's ideas and approaches will remain with us for many years to come. It is a book ahead of its time.

Ignore this book at your peril
For anyone remotely involved with advertising and brand communications, if you haven't already, you should read Joseph Jaffe's excellent, thought provoking and brave book. In the foreword Don Schultz says 'this is the book I wish I had written'. I'm sure many more people will feel the same.

It's time to get our heads out the sand and realise that technology, media and consumers have changed dramatically. But advertising hasn't. We must move on. A continued reliance on the 30-second spot as the mainstay of all media strategies just isn't going to cut it. Jaffe brilliantly lays down the arguments and ideas for Life After The 30 Second Spot.

If you're already thinking ahead of the 30-second spot or if you're in a state of denial or anywhere in between - read Jaffe's book. And check out his blog site too jaffejuice.com.

Can't wait for the sequel.