The Fast/Cheap Era of Ads is Ending
Op-Ed — This is the End
by Adam Singer, VP Marketing, AdQuick
We’re at an inflection point in advertising. The “fast and cheap” era is ending, not because budgets disappeared, but attention did.
For years, the industry celebrated optimization over originality. Entire campaigns built to feed algorithms, not inspire audiences. Our industry runs millions of tests, yet weren’t creating much new demand, we were simply capturing what already existed. This was behavior that rode a generationally bullish tech wave which pushed our craft to the side. It was too easy, and all easy things eventually come to an end.
Ad blindness is one inevitable outcome, and a big one. When every brand targets the same audiences with the same templates and tone, differentiation evaporates. Here, efficiency is the enemy of meaning. And while performance has its place, it alone can’t replace the work of brand building: the slow, deliberate creation of trust, admiration, and affinity. That’s what our industry is slowly waking back up to.
We’re at an inflection point in advertising. The “fast and cheap” era is ending, not because budgets disappeared, but attention did
The truth is consumers want to feel something again. Talk to some, you’ll see what we mean. They want brands that stand for something real and authentic, not just the trend of the day. They want quality, thoughtfulness, and beauty – aka proper creative work that can’t be A/B tested into existence.
The brands that thrive in the next decade will be the ones that rediscover pride in their craft. They’ll invest in campaigns that earn attention because they have real meaning. They’ll think long-term. They’ll remember that advertising, at its best, is cultural work made by artistically-minded people.
It’s time to bring that back. Together, let’s build a new golden age of advertising: one defined not just by how fast we can make something or short term KPIs, but by how deeply it can make people care.
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