Good news. Advertising that doesn’t work is going to be less expensive, too.

Marketing experts expect big-brand companies to spend even less money next year on Eisenhower-era advertising in newspapers, television and radio.  There are several reasons for this.

One, more budgets are being shifted to that Internet thing.

Two, that pesky Information Age technology keeps fragmenting the audiences.  If you’re a left-handed cat owner who lives in the desert and collects Victorian pudding recipes – there’s probably a magazine, cable network, satellite radio station, web site, blog and social network just for you.  And they all sell advertising.

And three, most traditional advertising doesn’t work because there’s still so much of it.  Consumers are bombarded by sales messages at virtually every transition and transaction of every day.  I mean, really.  When’s the last time you read the morning paper and didn’t blow by the majority of display ads?  Even a Sunday two-page color ad just makes it easier to jump to the next page without missing anything important.

The good news is that all this proliferation means that whatever advertising companies decide to do will cost less.  “The Internet and competition,” one expert told the Wall Street Journal, “are making media pricing more rational.”

Even at bargain prices, however, you need to make sure you’re not shooting advertising into the air with hopes that the ducks fly into it.

Those days are over.
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