Is AI Killing Advertising? & Scott’s Best Financial Decision

Support for the show comes from ODO, running a business takes everything you've got, and a lot of the tools out there that are supposed to make your life easier, just aren't great, talking to each other.

And that means you end up having to toggle between a dozen different apps and services just to keep the lights on.

Enough of that, now there's ODO.

The all-in-one fully integrated platform that might actually help you get it all done.

Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try ODO for free at ODO.com. That's ODO.com.

Support for the show comes from VCX, the public ticker for private tech.

The US stock market started history's greatest wave of wealth creation. From factory workers in Detroit to farmers in Omaha, anyone could own a piece of the great American companies.

But today, our most innovative companies are staying private longer, which means every day Americans are missing out, until now.

Introducing VCX, a public ticker for private tech. Visit getvcx.com for more info.

That's getvcx.com. Carefully consider the investment materials before investing, including objectives, risk, charges, and expenses.

This is another information to be found in a funds perspective at getvcx.com. This is a paid sponsorship.

Support for today's show comes from Northwest Registered Agent. Starting a business can be overwhelming, but if you want to take that first step, look no further than Northwest Registered Agent.

You can get access to thousands of free resources, forms, and step-by-step guides without even creating an account.

And when you sign up for a free account, you can get access to corporate guides. These are real experts who answer questions, no strings attached.

And they don't just help you form your business. They give you the free tools you need after you form it, like operating agreements, meeting minutes, and thousands of how-to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business.

Northwest Registered Agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launching grow businesses for nearly 30 years.

And when you're launching your next big thing, you need experts in your corner to help you navigate the unique hurdles your business might face.

Don't wait, Protector Privacy, build your brand, and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes.

Visit northwestregisteredagent.com slash propg free and start building something amazing.

Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com slash propg free.

Welcome to Office Hours with Propgied. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind.

If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursappropgtimedia.com.

Again, that's officehoursappropgtimedia.com, or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in our next episode.

Question number one.

Our first question comes from Michael. I'm LinkedIn. Michael says, AI is one of the key drivers behind the recent collapse and irrelevance of the advertising agency industry.

What will happen to the whole marketing domain then?

Could you be a little broader in your questions? All right.

What's happening in the agency world? WPP, one of the world's largest holding companies, announced a major plan to cut a half a billion pounds in cost by 2028 driven by restructuring and integrating AI tools.

And is aiming to return the coming to growth by 2027, the new center share price to its levels since 1998.

Think about that. 28 years later, omnicom is 9 billion on merger with inter-public group of results in about 4,000 job cuts, which accounts for around 3% of the companies combined headcounts.

And then in 2025, total ad agency employment in the UK dropped over 14% with the under 25 work for shrinking nearly 19% driven apart by AI automating roles and reducing demand for entry level work.

So the industry's navigated platform transitions before print, broadcast, digital and mobile.

Listening this back to me, I've been able to reinvent myself and get out of shitty businesses before they got terribly shitty.

I started in my second year of business school, I started a brand strategy firm called Profit.

And my basic thesis was I read something from my brand strategy professor, David Ocker, that the only sustainable advantage was the intangible associations of developing these brand codes and then using this incredibly cheap, cheap medium called broadcast advertising to hammer home these brand associations of

maternal love or European grace or sex or American toughness.

And that that was how you created a rational margin. And from 1945 to the introduction of Google, whether it was PNG or Nike or General Motors, they basically the kind of the algorithm for above market shareholder value was a mediocre product with amazing brand values.

All that change with Google and that is all of a sudden your ability to find instead of deferring to the brand is a weapon of mass diligence.

You could type using your social graph using Google and search using different digital properties between I always used to stay at the trip at the four seasons or the risk Carlton when I traveled wide because someone else was paying.

I was traveling for clients were speaking gigs and they was delivering eight out of 10.

And then once there was TripAdvisor and Instagram and Facebook and Google, I now found that oh wait, when I'm in Berlin, I want to stay at the showhouse because it has the best gym when I'm in London, I want to be a children firehouse because it has the coolest bar with the hottest people.

You know, I basically I want to be the barely as hotel because it has the polo lounge where, you know, I can establish high contact with a lovely Russian lady.

That's not true. Anyways, I could find what worked for me and I no longer needed to defer to the institutional brand and that a series of smaller brands or that basically product innovation broke through.

Dad, if you had an amazing product like a 10x better product, people would learn about it without the benefit of advertising the majority of the companies have added tens of billions of dollars and shareholder value over the last 30 years have one thing in common and that is they spend a disproportionately low percentage of their gross proceeds on advertising because they just have they pour all their money into product innovation because digital kind of unlock this incredible era of product innovation Tesla spent no money on advertising because it had an individual who created

a massive amount of awareness and you could tune up the car over the wirelessly, you know, Google Instagram their 10x better products.

So there has been an era moving from brand to innovation and it's mostly been driven by these direct response mediums that have incredible technology.

They're automated, they don't require a person to show up and talk about brand codes wearing black and then entering to the exceptionally inefficient expensive ecosystem where they take millions of photographs and pay any leave us a quarter of a million dollars for a shoot of Kate Moss to find a moment in time and then run an ad for Tom Ford and Vogue magazine that costs $180,000 that is relevant to 2% of the market and Google basically said we can target people down to teenagers.

Who just got drivers licenses in New York if you're a guy go in New York anyways these companies are now in just full blown structural decline, which means they're going to have to cut costs and consolidate and merge.

But you're going to see the next kind of step change down is going to be when these AI companies launch advertising and they're already beginning to experiment with advertising formats.

Conversational AI systems including chat GPT have started introducing sponsored responses and paid placements in certain context that's going to be really fucking strange when you're AI, which knows your history starts serving you ads.

And the best ads of the Super Bowl hands down I think ran the topic mocking the idea of chat GPT going into ads those ads were just my God they were outstanding.

In some I just want to relate this to so AI is another tool that will continue to kick this shit out of traditional masters of the universe from the last century and that is the ad agency guys.

So let's bring this back to me best consulting gig I ever had was right out of business school again I'm more in helmet of helmet of Friedman I met him we hit it off and he said I got a great assignment.

I'm going to pay you for two years to come to the board meetings of Levi Strauss incumbent time at the time it was the most valuable private coming in the world.

Everyone had leave I thought advertising was just it like an ad the right ad campaign could change everything for them because they had an okay denim product and they wrapped it in amazing grand codes across the eight bucks to produce these things and they sold them for 38 bucks at JC pennies and 150 bucks in Germany.

And I'm not exaggerating I haven't seen an ad man or an ad woman in a board meeting in 20 years.

No one gives a shit what they think you they literally don draper has been drawn and quartered and so the advice is kind of the following these are just shitty places to invest in work.

Now having said that if you're over say the age of 40 45 and you already have good momentum there any of clients alike you you are always going to need people to interpret changes in marketing and advertising and AI for clients who are willing to spend their company's money to help them navigate an ecosystem which is increasingly complex.

But every year their business gets smaller and smaller and shit here and shit here so you're over the age of 40 45 and you're doing well fine.

But if you are under the age of 40 and you have a chance to get out of the fucking get on the helicopter out of Saigon because traditional kind of image based broadcast driven advertising.

Oh my God that's a shitty business and it's like going to work for in cable news right now.

So what happens to the whole domain of traditional marketing.

Pain.

Thanks for the question.

Question number two also comes from LinkedIn Noah Frank asks what is the most underrated financial decision you made that had nothing to do with investing.

Easy.

I married a competent partner.

I married someone as a decent person who's competent.

I have a lot of friends who are.

Men and women who don't have a competent partner and it means they have two jobs which means they can't be very good.

You know, don't half ask two things whole ask one thing.

You end up half asking two things if you're partner if your husband or your wife isn't competent.

You managing the relationship you're managing the household.

So building something with someone who's competent and loving and understanding and makes you feel good about yourself.

It manages the parts of your life well or the home well who brings in their own money in a smart.

I mean one plus one equals three.

The majority of very, very wealthy people are married and have a competent partner and my dad always made good money.

And it goes the other way you want to be a good partner as well.

My dad always made good money. He was talented.

At the age of 60, he ended up broke without a pot to piss in because he got married in divorce four times.

So it goes both ways.

One, the most important decision you will make financially and in terms of your own psychological well being, hands down is finding the right partner.

And what I don't like is all this shit that's especially on TikTok telling women that he doesn't open your door.

He's out of there like find red flags and everything. Well, that's not helpful either.

But the question is alright. How do you select a good partner if that's the most important thing?

And I think most people would probably say okay, that makes sense.

One, it's sex and affection.

Yeah, you're saying I choose you. I think it's really important.

And I think you constantly need to reaffirm that and work on it and express physical desire.

I think let me say it.

I think women want to be wanted and I think sex, it brings peace and harmony to relationship and says I choose you to values.

I think it's important that you're generous and very open with each other about things like religion as relates to your kids, how close you want to do your family and that you're generous with each other around those things.

And then the third is I was joking.

They say never let a woman be cold or hungry.

I mean, there's some power bars at all times. The biggest blowups I've had in my relationships have been when someone didn't have lunch.

They skipped lunch. Watch out.

Where am I going with this?

Anyways, picking the right partner and then also so how do you pick the right partner volume? What do I mean by that?

Get out. Yeah, it's great to sit at home and eat an edible and hang out with your dog and watch Netflix.

No, fucking get out. Find friends. Go out. Be friendly.

Somebody asked you out for a coffee and it's not like sparks right away.

Okay, go to a second coffee. You might find the you over time you really end up start to get more into him or into her.

Get out. Meet friends. Express romantic interest. Be bold. Approach strangers.

Put yourself in situations where the serendipity of meeting somebody.

Be bold. Be brave. How did I find the mother of my children? I saw a woman I was attracted to at the hotel pool.

The Raleigh Hotel. I went out to get my promise myself. I was going to speak to her before I left.

I didn't. I went out to get my car and I'm like, fuck and I grabbed a I told the valet guy to hold on to my car and I went back in and I rolled up and said,

hi, my name's Scott. Where are you guys from? And I don't know 18 months later our first son's middle name is Raleigh.

My point is it's easy to say, okay, you're going to get it partners the most important financial decision, right?

You probably like if you're not nodding your head, okay, you don't get it. It is the most important decision.

The most important decision. I think you can sort of control too. All right, great. How do I find a great partner?

Putting yourself out there, going out, being kind, if you're a man leveling up, level up for God's sakes.

Young men need to level up because young women are leveling up and it's only natural and understandable that their standards are going up as they would if you were fucking leveling up the way women are leveling up.

Anyways, when am I going with this?

Most important decision, financial emotionally, psychologically, who you decide to build a life with.

How do you find the right partner? You get out, you level up yourself, you make yourself more attractive, you develop resilience and you put yourself in a ton of situations where you could meet somebody.

Thanks for the question. We'll be right back after a quick break.

Support for the show comes from Vanguard. The role of financial advisor is to do everything you can to set your clients up for success.

There are plenty of ways you can go about it. Maybe a leveling up of your fixed income strategy, but bonds can be tricky.

The market is huge, rate shift, and risks hide in plain sight. That's why having a partner with scale and expertise matters. Vanguard brings both.

Vanguard bonds are institutional quality. Institutional quality isn't a tagline, it's a commitment to your clients.

It means top grade products across the board. The lineup includes over 80 bond funds, or actively managed by a 200 person global squad of sector specialists, analysts, and traders.

A lot of firms love to highlight their star portfolio managers, like it's all about that one brilliant mind making the magic happen.

Vanguard's philosophy is a little different. They believe the best active strategy shouldn't be locked away with one person. They should be shared across the team.

So if you're looking to give your clients consistent results a year in and year out, go to see the record for yourself at vanguard.com slash audio.

That's vanguard.com slash audio. All investing is subject to risk, vanguard marketing corporation distributor.

Support for today's show comes from IMAIT. It's not easy to get all the vitamins and minerals you need in a day.

And IMAIT wants to keep things simple with their daily ultimate essentials drink.

My colleague Ed Ellsson, another user experience from someone who signs the back of checks and is living off daddy.

I tried it, and I did love it, and I do love it. IMAIT, I use it pretty much every day. It's hydration, it makes me feel healthy.

I can't tell if it's actually making me healthier, but it's making me feel healthier, and that is what matters the most, but big fan of IMAIT.

That sounds nice, and let me just say your complexion is sublime Ed. Start feeling your best self every day with IMAIT.

Go to IMAITHealth.com slash proffg and use code proffg for a free welcome kit.

5-3 travel sachets plus 10% off your order. That's IMAIT number 8, H-E-A-L-T-H.com slash proffg code proffg for a free welcome kit.

5-3 travel sachets plus 10% off your order. IMAITHealth.com slash proffg code proffg.

These statements have not been evaluated with Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Support for the show comes from VCX, the public ticker for private tech. For generations, American companies have moved the world forward to their ingenuity and determination.

And for generations, everyday Americans could be part of that journey through perhaps the greatest innovation of all.

The US stock market. It didn't matter whether you were a factory worker in Detroit or a farmer in Omaha.

Anyone could own a piece of the great American companies. But now, that's changed. Today, our most innovative companies are staying private rather than going public.

The result is that everyday Americans are excluded from investing and getting left further behind, while I select few reap all the benefits until now.

Introducing VCX, the public ticker for private tech. VCX by Funrise gives everyone the opportunity to invest in the next generation of innovation, including the company's leading AI revolution, space exploration, defense tech, and more.

Visit GetVCX.com for more info. That's GetVCX.com. Carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, charges, and expenses.

This and other information can be found in the funds perspective at GetVCX.com. This is a paid sponsorship.

Welcome back question number three.

Hey Scott, my wife and I both inherited reasonable amounts of money from our families.

We worked our asses off, managed it well, and now we're sitting on significant wealth that we need to tell our 21 and 24 year old kids about.

Our goal is to give them the freedom to do the work that they love without financial pressure.

But our fear is that we don't want to create spoiled brats who think that finding themselves is a career.

How do my wife and I thread this needle? And what's the script for? You never have to worry about money, but if you stop working, I will haunt you from the grave.

I need the Galloway playbook here on how to avoid raising waiters, you know, people who just wait around for their inheritance instead of building something with their lives, looking forward to your advice.

So this is where you call a good problem, but it's going to be a problem because there's going to be a ton of generational wealth transfer over the next 10, 20, 30, 50 years.

So I love these member clubs because my arrested adolescence tour continues unfettered.

I'm in the midst of a midlife crisis. That's the bad news. The good news is I think I'm going to get through it in about 30 or 40 years.

But part of that manifestation is I join all these members clubs, mostly in New York, but there's some here in London.

I learned and actually been in the mid. It's been affected in New York and I like going to a place where I'm going to get in.

It's going to have like a curated group of people. Hello, douchebag. That's right. Daddy, first word, douche, second word bag, whatever. I'm just leaning into it.

And one of the members clubs I go to is Costa Chupriani downtown in New York. And I went there with some friends, three of us, a couple mostly appetizers, a few drinks, 700 bucks.

And I met the GM and I said, I said, I see all these young people here, people in their 20s and 30s. Who can afford this?

And he said, well, one, none of the women are paying for anything. And two, most of the men here, it's not their credit card.

It's their parents credit card. And it's a lot of trust fund kids from New Jersey. And it just struck me that I wonder if about a third of the people in New York, their parents are putting them through Manhattan.

There's just going to be so much inherited wealth. Now, this is a good problem. I technically share this problem. I have some economic security that I hope entrusted some point. My kids will have access to the way I think about it is the following one.

A lot of it isn't up to you in the sense that you'd like to think that we like to think is parents that we are engineers that all of our behavior will mold this, this block of clay into a wonderful person and for not careful and we chisel off the arm that we raise assholes.

Yeah, some of that. I can see that. But what we don't recognize is that a lot of it is in the batter. First lady Obama, who I think gives great parenting advice said that they come to you.

And there were more, more than being engineers were shepherds. And that is we choose the fields that graze on. We point him in the right direction, but they kind of come to you. And his evidence by an approach to money. I have one kid who I bought a cashmere hoodie for. There was 240 pounds. And he liked it. And then he saw the price tag.

And said, this is too expensive. And I said, well, I bought it. I can afford it. Don't worry about it. When returned it and credited my credit card because he just was uncomfortable with me spending that much money on him on a cashmere hoodie. Whereas I have another, another one of my kids is, you know, we just found out is spending a hundred pounds a day on delivery and Uber.

So a lot of it is in the batter. Now, having said that my approach, I think about this a lot.

And that is, how do you not raise assholes or spoiled kids in the Warren Buffett.

Attage is really a good one. And that is you want to give your kids enough money so they can do anything, but not enough money so they can do nothing.

The way I approach it is the following. And I learned this from Morgan House on I like this a lot.

I am going to scale up or scale down my kids life with my money or lack thereof. What do I mean by that?

If my kid goes to college and wants to be a high school math teacher, I'm going to scale his life up. If he gets up every morning and decides he wants to teach math to high school kids and he lives a good honorable life.

I'm going to give him enough money to buy a house and have a nice life and I'm going to make sure that he doesn't have the economic stress of most teachers.

Is that a total, you know, nice to have moment of privilege? Yeah. And I've worked hard and that's one of the things I will do for my kids.

If they're doing something worthwhile, that's good for society and they're trying hard and they're good citizens.

And they don't have the money to live the kind of life, you know, live in a city.

I want them to live nice lives. I deserve that. I've worked for it. I want it for them.

If my kid is rolling around in a Range Rover and not doing a whole lot and starting and stopping shit and constantly and maybe still living at home or just spending more than he's making and not doing much of anything, I am going to try and cut him off.

So I'm going to scale up or scale down based on their activity.

So, you know, I will, in terms of what I leave my kids, I'm probably going to leave them enough money to make sure that they have a home and can afford education.

But I'm not, you know, I'm hoping to be around a while, but basically my attitude is if you have the benefit of money scale up or scale down, I don't think letting them know they have money means they're going to wait around for you to die.

I just don't, I don't, I don't think that's going to happen.

But this is again, the mother of all good problems. But would I, you know, they also, they, it's not what you tell them. It's what you show them.

I don't know if I send a good or bad message to my, I spend a shit ton of money, but the same time I don't have a car, I give a lot of money away.

I think I model good financial behavior on a lot of levels and probably not on other levels. I do, anyways, enough of that.

My kind of only, and I have not figured this out, my sort of lesson here advice would be scale up or scale down based on their behavior and the way they equip themselves in terms of their professional commitment and the lives that they lead.

Thanks so much for the question.

That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursaprofjimedia.com.

Again, that's officehoursaprofjimedia.com or if you prefer to ask and read it, just post your question on the SkyCaliway subreddit and we'll just my featured in an upcoming episode.

This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez and Laura Jenner.

Tammy Reek is our social producer, Brad Williams is our editor and Drew Burrows is our technical director.

Thank you for listening to The Property Pop and Property Media.