Tag Archives: advertising
Advertising loses in a mudslide
Media observer Bob Garfield on what we learned about advertising from the recent campaigns:
“Nothing that comes out of the mouth of a brand or any other institution has remotely the influence of what comes from the mouths of 7 billion bystanders freely trading opinions online.”
“What matters is what the public has to say about you — based on who the public believes you really are. … If people don’t like you, they are no longer eager to do business with you. And in a socially mediated world, not to mention a world of enforced transparency wherein your every move is searchable on Google in perpetuity, you can no longer advertise your way into their wallets, much less their hearts.”
“We are now and forevermore in the Relationship Era. What the GOP proved, and what all marketers must at long last internalize, is that you can’t advertise yourself out of a bad relationship.”
Radio’s Salvation?
“Television is the last protected media business,” but it’s going to get disrupted. For one, once televisions are computers, analytics of who watches will get more accurate than Nielsen panels. “Everyone knows that if we go to actual measurement, ad rates will collapse because the numbers aren’t as good as Nielsen makes them look.”
The End of Demographics
In small market radio we were thrilled to have research that told us how many men listened to our station compared to how many women. And, of course, the demos: 12+, 18-24, 35-54… I think I missed one but that’s not the point. From 8 or 10 “diaries” in a county we were supposed to extrapolate useful information for out programmers and advertisers. Uh huh.
This article illustrates how much things are changing.
“The rise of mass-produced consumer goods also brought the rise of mass-market advertising. In the 1950s and 1960s, the goal of television was to aggregate the most possible eyeballs for advertisers. In order to convince consumers that an advertising message was relevant to them, consumers had to buy the idea that they were just like everyone else. The year that someone was born will not tell you how likely he is to buy your product.”
“Threads of advertising-sponsored content”
“Advertising is becoming content, not message. Or, more specifically, the message is knit into the content. Under that scenario there is no 30-second spot per se, there are simply threads of advertising-sponsored content.
Creating “content that people choose to watch (and share)” (and listen to) is the job of every company that calls itself “media.” This goes to the heart of radio’s revenue model because it is clearly out of step with the direction of clients and their agencies.
This is why the structure of so much of radio is outdated. We have sellers who move spots and programmers who mix music. What we need amongst these are content creators who match consumers with clients in the presence of our brands by bringing compelling ideas to life.”
— Mark Ramsey Media