Advertisers Move Away From The TV

January 16, 2008 By Jeremiah Staes Leave a Comment

With the TV writers’ strike looking like it won’t end any time soon, the big content networks are moving their focuses to “out of home media” as a separate market with an example being the “NBC Everywhere” division.

Their current focus is screens in supermarkets, retailers, and other point of purchase areas. Their thought is to lure shoppers with quality, known content – and then up-sell.

Many advertisers are hesitant on this – due to the lack of metrics (more another day on the obsession with metrics) and the fact that it isn’t a fit for every type of business.

But, of course, not every media has been a great fit for every advertiser. Even though things like TV ads are sexy, or doing a radio show on some station with a tiny market share (a trend that boggles my mind due to it’s limited reach and lack of time-shifting), these mainstream routes of delivery effectiveness is questionable for many applications.

It does amaze me – so many advertisers and agencies are hesitant on this POS marketing because of lack of metrics, yet, they’re hesitant on things like new media and the web, even though it has metrics upon metrics.

Methinks it goes back to the old saying – agencies in general do the dance Jim Cramer described on his “Mad Money” show… TV, Print, Radio, Billboards – and don’t innovate as much as they need to.

Hat tip to Marketplace on American Public Media for story inspiration.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Interaction Design

Blogs Help Search and Content, If You Use Them Right

January 13, 2008 By Jeremiah Staes Leave a Comment

Interesting article I stumbled over at George Dearing’s Blog… and reinforces what we’ve been saying for awhile. That blogs, can in fact, be ranked highly.

Now, I think there is a caveat to this, and was brought up in a discussion I happened to have with some other geeks. The problem is that most companies want to look at these items as checklists, and not part of an ongoing strategy.

One of the things that separate quality, long-lasting companies that are flash-in-the-pans or single-service entities is their persistence in marketing. The realization that when things get tough, the last thing you cut is advertising and marketing, because that is what will pull you through the down time. And blogging, as well as podcasting, should be part of what can be a low-cost alternative (or, frankly, main) strategy.

More and more, people are turning away from TV and onto their laptops and computers for knowledge and recommendations. The days of not needing a website (which I actually had someone tell me the other day) are over – it’s required to stay alive and competitive. That, and you need to prove your value in many markets where the product or service has been commoditized.

Podcasting and blogging help make that case in the minds of consumers, I believe.

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Some Companies Eliminate Print Marketing Completely

January 1, 2008 By Jeremiah Staes Leave a Comment

So I’ll share the story of Cheetah Learning (sourced from WebWorkerDaily) to illustrate an interesting change.

As someone who usually believes interactive is part of a complete solution, not the whole solution, this shift perked my ears up.

Cheetah has eliminated printed marketing materials totally. That philosophy was confirmed recently in a decision about how to thank its 2007 customers for their business. “A couple of years ago, we sent out cards to 9,000 students,” says LaBrosse. “That cost me $18,000 — ridiculous.” Along with the card was an invitation to take a free course, which 900 people took advantage of. This year, LaBrosse decided to send out an email holiday greeting — and included free access to video cooking lessons online.” That emailer had a 25% open rate — higher than the cards, as far as LaBrosse calculates it. “I didn’t print out any materials. They got a better product.” Total cost: $5,000 to sponsor the site providing the cooking lessons.

I wonder – is print losing efficacy, or is online just plain more effective than print and few want to talk about it? After all, the high costs of printing (good design, as well as writing to entice will be a wash or a little less with a good email) vs. the cheap if not free of distribution make it a lot less expensive as a communication medium. This, however, takes money out of agency pockets, which usually make a percentage above the costs.

One of the reasons many marketing people may not want to talk about online is that it’s not as lucrative to recommend an online campaign for $5,000 vs. $18,000. Using standard percentage rates (and no, not a perfect price comparison) that would reduce the cut to a marketing professional on the “buy” portion of the bill from $3150 to $875.

No wonder so many traditional ad houses are worried about this stuff.

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