Lou Paskalis sees a world, not too far from now, in which advertising as an industry is over. Media evolution is coming to necessitate a shift in the way brands reach consumers, from old broadcast to as era in which they must work hard using content to engage.

“We’re at the end of the advertising era – it’s coming to an end,” Paskalis said in a recent industry panel discussion. “Thank God. Because now we can all be marketers, which is why we got in to this business, and get out of this ridiculous business of advertising, which is disruptive, not additive to the consumer experience, and which exactly no-one including your family wants.

“What they desperately want on their mobile device is content. Marketers can make great content. Content has nothing to do with ads. Ads are stories about my brand, content is stuff people want – we have to figure out how to win them over with content, earn their attention and make a connection.”

Vonage media VP Kathryn Szumowski agreed, adding content must engage users actively to be effective.

They were questioned by Tobi Elkin.

Programming Note:  Paskalis will be a speaker at the Beet TV executive retreat in For Lauderdale this month. 

This video is from Media Future Conversations 2015: Unblocked – Valuing Human Attention In A Content-Driven World, an event presented by true[X] in association with Beet.TV  Please find more event videos here.