Let's drop the bomb to start things off: no matter what you have seen or read (especially on Twitter), traditional advertising is by no means "dead," it is merely evolving. For starters, a Nielsen Online survey of 25,000 people found that consumers still have significantly high trust levels for newspaper and television advertisements (61%) compared to lower trust levels for opt-in emails at 55% (and remember, consumers are CHOOSING to receive these) and mobile text ads at 24%. Moreover, only 45% of Internet users frequent social media/networking sites and only 1 in every 10 is active on Twitter.
Even if you argue that social media may not be the future, but other forms of digital advertising (such as search, which accounts for 60% of online ad spend) are, another Nielsen survey shows that the average adult spends half of his or her daily "media time" (the hours during the day a person spends interacting with media) watching television compared to just 21% of time on the Internet. An even more staggering statistic is that 8 in every 10 Generation Y consumers don't notice or ignore advertisements on social media websites, suggesting that at best social network advertisements need to be very targeted and contextually relevant.
At this point, I feel it is important to mention that digital advertising (especially social media and mobile marketing) is growing at exponential rates, but the future is not now and the consumer lives in the now. So, what does this mean for the typical agency? To borrow a sports analogy, advertisers don't need to throw out the entire offense, they simply need to add some new play to the playbook, starting with a digital strategy to prepare for the future. Agencies need to challenge themselves to proactively create new, fresh ideas and insights to increase the value proposition for a client.
What all this leads me to is the new buzz word for advertisers: Integration. How is your agency integrating all the elements of a campaign across various platforms to engage the consumer and prompt action? A great example of this is Sears back to school campaign in the United States: "Don't Go Back, Arrive," playing on the fact that going back to school is essential the fashion runway for the tween generation. The focal point of the campaign (originally launched in 2008 and modified again for 2009) was television spots shot with a music video feel featuring an air band led by a tween celebrity. In 2008 it was High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens and this year it was Disney start Selena Gomez. Use of these well known figures draws in the target consumer.
Sears then integrated (Buzz word!) the campaign by launching www.arrivelounge.com when consumers could go and view the spots, connect with others, play games, get fashion tips, and most importantly engage that brand by submitting an entry for the air band's name, their logo, or a video clip showing why they should be the bands 5th member (the winner of each was determined by nation-wide online voting). What this engagement item did was prompt viral action, as tweens who submitted an entry communicated this with friends to spread the word and get more votes. Furthermore, it created a desire to frequently return to the website to see how their submission was doing. The 2008 result for Sears was the reversal of a downward market share trend and an image that once again, Sears is a cool place to shop for back to school fashion.
[BecomeMaverick]
I love the Sears reference - It's a great example of what more organizations need to be doing (or pitched to do) re: their Advertising. I've been speaking with some people in the creative realm, and besides consumers being still focused on traditional media, the companies that buy media time are still opting for large quantities of traditional media; try arguing with a client over telling them to drop TV and start to Twitter. I think for a lot of social media advertising or new media advertising we are still in the early adopter stage and integration might just be the key to moving things along. Good post!
ReplyDeleteThis comment came from my friend Troy Heibein. He originally commented on another post which I thought was too similar to this one so I changed. Great Insights.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post. Nothing bothers me more than when individuals take “new media”, “digital media”, or “social media / networking” too far and declare “traditional advertising” or “traditional media” dead. It is sensational and may make for an interesting sales pitch or speech but it is simply not true.
In 60 years when an entire generation has become use to purely digital content, someone is going to get the idea to put this content on paper (ie. Newspaper or magazine). Everyone will say how ‘brilliant’ and ‘innovative’ this idea is. The advantage of digital media is in its relevance due to speed and access to unlimited amounts of information/data. With regards to use/enjoyment, it still has a long way to go. Give me a newspaper and a coffee or a book and a beach any day over an Amazon Kindle or Sony E-Book reader.
Troy