{"id":1128,"date":"2018-11-20T14:21:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T14:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2018-11-20T14:21:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T14:21:20","slug":"the-gospel-according-to-gary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/the-gospel-according-to-gary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gospel According to Gary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody in the UK ad business has ever heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. I know this as I\u2019ve employed a research technique beloved by Gary himself: I asked a few people I know. Admittedly these people were gathered at the asi conference on audience measurement but, hey.<\/p>\n

Gary for those who have never heard of him (and I\u2019m sure many smart Cog Blog readers have, really) is a serial entrepreneur, who enjoys great success in fields as far apart as wine, media (not so far apart) and sneakers.<\/p>\n

As well as being hugely successful, I\u2019m sure he\u2019s a charming guy (in fact I hear from some who know him that he genuinely is) but charming or otherwise when it comes to advice on media matters he is somewhat deluded.<\/p>\n

Gary\u2019s been in the news here this last week on the back of a series of appearances in which he says (I precis) that anyone who does not spend their entire marketing budget on Facebook and Instagram is nuts; that all other media forms are dead or dying; and that marketers will come to thank him for the wisdom as prices on FB (et al) are about to go through the roof.<\/p>\n

He makes one exception \u2013 ads in the Superbowl are well worth it, and together with Facebook and Instagram \u2026. Well, really that\u2019s all you need to know.<\/p>\n

Amidst the sound of teeth gnashing, and some of us just sighing quietly in desperation, Professor Mark Ritson decided to be sensible. He split Gary\u2019s claims into five, and basically destroyed them one by one with evidence and facts.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t read the good Professor\u2019s masterpiece in \u2018Marketing Week\u2019 here it is<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t improve on Ritson (let\u2019s face it, few can) but there are a couple of interesting further facts on Gary\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

First, he preaches to the choir. Gary typically speaks to online advertising evangelists. He avoids debate (Ritson has apparently suggested just such a thing, only for it to be firmly and politely rejected). In fact, not only does he preach to the choir he also uses the choir as his research sample. As Ritson says:<\/p>\n

\u201cVaynerchuk is bereft of any data and relies initially on his own media consumption for empirical proof. But in recent years his stage show has usually included a section in which he uses his audience and a show of hands to demonstrate the fallacy of TV advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you criticise Gary, the high priest of social media on social media, well, you can guess what happens next.<\/p>\n

It all sounds a bit like someone else, in a different line of work.<\/p>\n

To be clear, no-one is suggesting that FB and Instagram don\u2019t have their place; or that for certain advertisers they do a great job. Indeed, my Twitter feed this week contained one such small business owner pointing out what a great job FB does for him.<\/p>\n

But not all advertisers are the same; media planning is a skill; selection of channels isn\u2019t simple; one size does not fit all.<\/p>\n

The second fact is that Gary, along with many, many online advertising \u2018experts\u2019 (there seem to be loads of people answering to that description) is quick to criticise the ad industry\u2019s data. \u2018Small samples\u2019, \u2018biased findings\u2019, \u2018controlled by the big broadcasters\u2019, \u2018methodologies not fit for purpose\u2019. And so on.<\/p>\n

Gary Vaynerchuk was an early stage investor in Facebook. You don\u2019t think that his unbiased, small-sample-based, independent advice to marketers might be driven by any sense of self-interest do you?<\/p>\n

No, of course not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobody in the UK ad business has ever heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. I know this as I\u2019ve employed a research technique beloved by Gary himself: I asked a few people I know. Admittedly these people were gathered at the asi conference on audience measurement but, hey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1129,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/1129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}