The advertising industry has never been entirely comfortable with the question of whether it needs to exist.

This existential uncertainty surfaced again recently when Fast Company convened thirty-one executives to weigh in on that perennial parlor game: Is advertising more effective, or is word of mouth? The answers, perhaps unsurprisingly, tended to favor the thing that doesn't require a media budget — though the respondents were careful to note that both have their place, which is the sort of diplomatic hedge that keeps one employable.

"You can buy attention," said Dan Amzallag, chief executive of the procurement software company Ivalua. "You cannot buy belief." Mr. Amzallag recalled flying a European customer to America to vouch for his product in person — a tactic that presumably cost less than a thirty-second spot during the Super Bowl, if only just.

The consensus, such as it was, held that advertising creates awareness while word of mouth creates trust. This formulation appeared in nearly identical language across multiple responses, suggesting either a fundamental truth about human commerce or a shared LinkedIn feed.

Several respondents invoked their longest-tenured clients as evidence of relationship-building prowess. Richard McWhorter, of SRM Private Wealth, noted that his first client from 1992 remains with him today. "A relationship that long doesn't come from a pitch," Mr. McWhorter said. (One imagines the pitch that year involved a fax machine.)

Jeff Geheb of WPP Enterprise Solutions — representing, as it were, the other side of the transaction — offered the holding-company view that "neither exists in isolation," which is true in the way that oxygen and nitrogen both exist in isolation but are more useful when combined into something breathable.

The most revealing response may have come from Michael Quoc, whose advertising budget, he reported, is zero. "And it's working," Mr. Quoc said.

Madison Avenue, one suspects, will continue to exist anyway.

Original story published in Fast Company: "31 leaders on advertising versus word of mouth"