Is Traditional Advertising Dying Online?
September 10, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
As everyone discusses the state of old world media such as TV, Radio and Print advertising being in the midst of a transitional period, I would like to talk about how old world online advertising is also on the way out.
As I talk with companies that are looking to run marketing campaigns to spotlight their brands, products or services, I’m hearing some very interesting perspectives from our clients, and I live by the #1 Business rule that the customer is always right. So what am I hearing from clients? CEO’s and CMO’s are no longer satisfied with simply running banner campaigns that drive brand recognition, they are now pushing for us to help them attain a ubiquitous Internet presence. And because of this evolved mindset, comes my favorite part: companies are not looking for agencies to simply create ad campaigns anymore, they are looking for us to be their business development partner.
A good example of this is what we are doing for a health and wellness client we have. As opposed to simply developing a marketing strategy for them, we formed several strategic partnerships with gyms around the country to market this particular companies services. And because the relationship was mutually beneficial for both parties, we were able to get the client a far wider and more targeted reach then they would have gotten by a ad buy, and it was able to be accomplished for pennies on the dollar. The result was that the client got the highest return on their marketing investment that they had ever gotten, and we’re working on something pretty cool for them right now.
Each quarter it seems as though fewer and fewer clients are wanting to buy the traditional forms of online marketing, however I don’t believe that it is due to the economy since the majority of our clients have been increasing their overall marketing budgets that we manage. Instead, these clients are asking how they can take advantage of the social media mechanisms that are currently in place. They hear all about outlets such as Twitter and Youtube, and they want to be at the forefront of these online activites. And they know that simply buying banner ads on an ad network is the closest thing you can do to burning money.
A great example of what I’m talking about is illustrated perfectly by some of the most innovative shows in the online world, Diggnation. Diggnation was founded by the the CEO and Founder of Digg.com, the popular online new aggregator, Kevin Rose. The show is extremely popular in the online community with tens of millions of views. And as opposed to trying to run pre rolls to monetize the show, Diggnation actually sells product placements in the show. This past Friday they actually talked about their beer sponsor for about 3 and a half minutes (all positive things to say of course). This type of marketing is the closest an advertiser can get to true word-of-mouth marketing. I understand that these types of ads are not scalable, however they give the online advertiser the best return on investment since they are talking with a highly engaged viewer.
So when you’re listening to people talking about how the old mediums of media are dying, just know the online world, in it’s current state, is not the future either.
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