via Fast Co. (Rei Inamoto)
In the past 12 months, a number of advertising professionals have left the agency world and joined or launched their own startups. Startups that, according to these defectors, provide value to consumers because ad agencies really don’t. Startups that make useful things and solve problems because, again, agencies don’t. Startups that don’t try to sell you stuff you don’t need.
Mad Men may be the most acclaimed TV show today. But let’s face it: It’s fiction. And it was set in the Old World. Fast-forward 50 years to the New World, the allure of the advertising industry just isn’t what it used to be.
One of the reasons why so many startups fail is because they build stuff for themselves without thinking through real consumer insights and needs for normal people.