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Bendinger: What advertising needs to do to survive

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By Jessica Strieper
Greenlee Web Team

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Bruce Bendinger speaks to advertising students during his Oct. 12 visit. Photo by Aaron Siders, Greenlee Web Team.

Author of “The Copy Workshop Workbook,” Bruce Bendinger visited several Greenlee School advertising classes on Oct. 12, presenting strategies for advertising to survive in today’s vicious market.

Bendinger is one of today’s creative masterminds. He became Leo Burnett’s youngest vice president at age 27. He has worked on well-known brands such as Procter & Gamble Co.’s Cheer laundry detergent and Pizza Hut.

Bendinger has also worked as the creative director for the President of United States. He held the position of senior vice president and group creative director at Foote Cone & Belding in Chicago.

In his discussion to the Advertising Creativity class, Bendinger pointed out three main topics that are important to advertisers today. These points included macro trends, four “big” thinkers and the triple whammy of advertising.

Macro Trends

The macro trends map shows the declining success of advertising and the rising success of marketing.

The Four Big Thinkers

Bendinger highlighted Joseph Schumpter for his work in creative destruction that showed how new technology often results in the destruction of old technology.

Gordon Moore was influential because he showed that computing capacity doubles roughly every 18 months.

Marshall McLuhan focused on the media as an extension of who we are.

And the final “big thinker,” Paul Romer, illuminated the importance of ideas. He showed that good ideas aren’t always backed up with research. Bendinger gave the example of Starbucks in which he said no amount of research would have predicted the coffee franchise would flourish.

The Triple Whammy

The final key point of Bendinger’s presentation included the “triple whammy” of advertising. The triple whammy concludes that advertising is facing the following obstacles:

• Media is now twice as expensive.
• Persuading a customer to switch brands is twice as difficult.
• The audience is twice as selective.

Bendinger closed the presentation with hope for advertisers and advertising. Three ways to fight the triple whammy are:

1. Focus on the customers you have, or as Bendinger put it, “Dance with who ya’ brung.”
2. Promote to loyal customers, not the deal shoppers.
3. Use public relations to endorse your product and use unique media opportunities such as cabs, where you have a captive audience.

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