Traditional vs. Digital
October 28, 2008 by OA Group · 1 Comment
There has been an ongoing debate for the past decade regarding which marketing medium provided advertisers with the best return on investment: traditional vs. digital. Traditional media buying would include: television, radio, newspaper, et al. Digital marketing includes: search engine marketing, banner ads, rich media and the newcomer streaming media. The truth of the matter is that I’ve seen both mechanism generate great and terrible results, it’s my experience that everything boils down to execution ultimately. However I want to briefly discuss each option.
Traditional Media
Traditional marketing has been around for ages and is thus a well established marketing machine. It has been attacked lately with the advent of TiVo and Satellite radio, however it remains a bastion of brand safe advertising distribution. There is very little fraud in traditional media, which enables a fairly worry free environment for clients. With the positives in mind it is also important to understand the drawbacks:
- Archaic analytic reporting;
- High level of risk;
- Lack of control.
- It is cost prohibitive for small businesses.
Digital Marketing
Digital, or online, advertising has been the fastest growing industry in the past decade and has birthed global corporate giants like Google and Yahoo! It addresses many of the negatives of traditional marketing, such as:
- Full analytics reporting, you know exactly when and where your ads have been displayed.
- With performance based campaigns, there is little to no risk at stake.
- You have full control over the campaign.
- Companies of any size can advertise online, due to little to no minimum advertising buys.
It may sound like I am one sided in this debate, and it is true, I believe very strongly in the power of digital marketing; however it is also paramount to remember that the key to a successful marketing campaign is matching the right message to the right audience. Contact us and we can help create a marketing plan that matches your needs.
Going Viral
September 8, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
I’m on the bike at the gym right now, blogging from my blackberry (what can I say, life’s been busy since the transition). And I wanted to talk about viral marketing. Here at OAG we’ve done our fair share of traditional media buys on every platform you can imagine (TV, Radio, billboards, Search Engines, et al), however very few things excite me as much as a well executed viral marketing campaign. So what factors determine whether a viral campaign is successful?
Here are three prerequisites you have to have:
1. Timing and Targeting Positioning you viral campaign at the write time is vital if you want it to catch on. Examples of this are: Santa Claus pranks during the holiday season or new product launches during New Years. Targeting is also very important, keep in mind that there are more online video sites than Youtube. Some of the best viral campaigns I’ve seen have started on Vimeo and Break.com.
2. Entertainment level If the video is boring, NO ONE IS GOING to watch it, much less send it to their friends. Make sure your campaign is either funny or extremely intriguing.
3. Clarity You viral campaign could be shown to the right audience at the right time, however if the message isn’t clear it will simple be ignored. One of the companies that did a great job of this recently was ZAGG. ZAGG manufactures protective iPhone and iPod cases, and they produced a great viral campaign that spread all over the web, one of the clips is below.
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