by Thomas Berry

TL;DR - Ad agencies suck! They take advantage of the fact that they understand this mythical beast called digital advertising and you don't. The truth they don't want me to tell you; the trust they don't want you to know is that they don't have anything power without you! They need you to exit. You, the business owner, have the power.

2018 will be remembered as the year the consumer became the ruler of advertising again. The forgotten men and women of our audience segmentations will be forgotten no longer!

My Fellow Advertisers and Consumers of the World.

We, the professionals of advertising, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our industry and restore its promise to all consumers.

Together, we will determine the course of advertising and the industry for many, many years to come. We will face challenges, we will confront hardships, but we will get the job done. Every few years, we gather at Meetups, in subreddits, and Slack channels to discuss the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to the social networks, communities, and ad exchanges for their gracious aid throughout this transition. Your algorithm updates have been magnificent, and I thank you.

This is an extraordinary time in the history of advertising, namely digital marketing. We are not merely transferring power and trends from one platform to another, or from one tech vendor to another, but we are transferring the industry from all advertising powers and giving it back to you, the consumer.

For too long, a small group of networks, marketing agencies, and ad exchanges have reaped the rewards of advertising while the consumers have borne the cost. Google flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Facebook prospered, but the kids left, and the organic reach withered. Ad exchanges protected themselves, but not the consumers of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated on Wall Street, there was little to celebrate for struggling consumers all across our internet.

That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is now your moment, this time is now your time, and it belongs to you. It belongs to everyone reading this today. This is YOUR day! This is YOUR celebration! And this is YOUR Internet. What truly matters is not which network controls our internet experience, but whether our Internet experience is controlled by you, the consumer.

2018 will be remembered as the year the consumer became the ruler of advertising again.

The forgotten men and women of our audience segmentations will be forgotten no longer!

Everyone is listening to you now. You come to the Internet by the hundreds of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the industry has never seen before.

At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction, that an industry exists to serve its consumers. Consumers demand a good user experience for their children, safe websites for their families, and of coarse, uninterrupted streaming for themselves. These are just and reasonable demands of righteous consumers and an omnipotent Internet.

But for too many of our consumers, a different reality exists: moms and kids trapped in pop-up hell, call-to-actions scattered like roaming tumbleweeds across the endless landscape of the Internet, an advertising environment with no shortage of cash, but which leaves the youth of our future starved with applicable and useful knowledge, and (last but certainly not least) the CPM’s, CTRs, and CPCs that have stolen too many dollars, and virtually robbed us of so much unrealized potential.

The advertising carnage stops this day! Right here and right now. We are one Internet and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams. And their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one magnificent destiny. For too long we’ve enriched industries at the expense of consumers and subsidized the growth of our clients.

“We must think big and dream even bigger. In advertising, we understand that an industry is only living as long as it is thriving. As such, we will no longer accept advertisers who are all talk and no action, constantly disrupting and dictating to us, but never providing a genuine consumer experience, built as the consumer demands.”

We will bring back our Internet. We will bring back our social networks. We will bring back uninterrupted browsing. And we will bring back our dreams. We will build new platforms and apps and websites and communities and technology that focuses on audience, not ego. We will follow two simple rules;

• Rule 1. What the consumer wants, how, when, and where they want it, the consumer gets.

• Rule 2. Whenever in doubt, refer to Rule 1.

We shall seek friendship and goodwill with the brands and clients, and we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all consumers to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our business, service or products on anyone, but rather to let it shine on its own. We will reinforce old relationships and form new ones and unite with the online shopper against tyranny of radical advertisers, which we will summarily eradicate from the face of the web. At the bedrock of our industry will be a total allegiance to the consumer, and through our loyalty to our consumer, we will rediscover our loyalty to, and celebrate each other and hold no tolerance for intrusive advertising.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In advertising, we understand that an industry is only living as long as it is thriving. As such, we will no longer accept advertisers who are all talk and no action, constantly disrupting and dictating to us, but never providing a genuine consumer experience, built as the consumer demands.

Our industry will thrive and prosper again! We stand at the birth of a great new that is ready to unlock the mysteries of data, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.

To all consumers in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words: You, the consumer are in control. You will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams will define our advertising destiny. Your clicks will forever guide us along the way. Together, we will make advertising strong again. We will make advertising wealthy again. We will make advertising proud again. And yes, together we will make advertising great again.