Marketers: Don’t abandon brands or creativity

If you have a few moments, it’s always enlightening to read the IAB’s Randall Rothenberg wax about the current state of online advertising on his cleverly named blog: I, A Bee.

In this post, he makes a credible case for marketers not to abandon brands or creativity to the temporary reliefs of direct response. He begins by asking the question: “Quick -- name four fantastic, emotionally resonant, culturally significant and successful interactive advertising campaigns from the past year.”

Needless to say, Randall’s broader argument is that just because our industry can hyper-target to yield amazing ROI, doesn’t mean we always should; and that brands and media owners must steward the creative process.