Back to Media Work in a Data-Driven Market: Re-Thinking the Labor of Advertising Practitioners

Abstract

Industry advocates argue that the focus of advertising production has shifted from the creativity of practitioners to consumer analytics and the potential advantages of big data. Although a little empirical research offers valuable insights about the changing role of advertising practitioners, it lacks a critical perspective to situate it in a broader social context. On the other hand, digital labor and branding literature over-concentrate on user labor and neglect the role of practitioners in advertising production. By deploying the concept of immaterial labor, this article reevaluates the findings of mainstream marketing-advertising literature within the context of post-Fordist labor. This article aims to create a resonance between theories of immaterial labor and advertising literature and to call for further empirical research from a labor perspective. It argues that advertising practitioners put more strategical, relational and communicative powers into work to manage a data-oriented market.