Take your brands online and save UK, says British marketer

“The UK advertising industry sucks £18bn ($29bn) annually from firms to make ads that are increasingly being ignored and deliver no value.”

That’s according to Tim Hunt, MD of UK-based marketing company Flexile.

At a time when companies need to save money, Hunt reckons that they should dump TV, magazine and junk mail advertising and instead embrace the Internet “where buyers now flock to find products and services”.

He has harsh words for ad agencies, claiming that they perpetuate the myth that the Internet is an immature environment.

“With good advice, British firms can compete on a national and global scale using the Internet … something a 30-second TV commercial can’t do.”

He also suggested that this huge advertising bill would be better spent on creating productive jobs.

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It comes at a time when the CEO of Publicis (owner of Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi) admitted that search engines can deliver better results than a mainstream advertising campaign.

“Fact is, UK firms need to get their brands noticed by search engines if they want to compete. If you can’t be found on Google, it’s unlikely you’ll be found at all,” said Hunt.

Though he doesn’t specifically mention blogs, microblogging or social media, there’s little doubt this is what companies need to embrace, as well as maintaining a decent web site that’s well indexed by the search engines, if they’re to do well online.