I was watching some streaming video the other day and of course there was an ad pre-rolling before the thing I wanted to see. Not an issue in my mind – trading 15 or 30 seconds of attention for free, high quality content is just fine with me.
Image via Wikipedia
But it did get me thinking. What I was watching was a repurposed TV ad – I’d seen it a few times on air already. Think about that – you wouldn’t open a magazine and see the creative from an outdoor board on the page. You wouldn’t run a radio ad on TV. So what is it about digital?
What I mean specifically is why does digital seem to be the place where creative intended for other media come to find new life? There’s a disconnect there beyond “new media” and “old” creative. Social and mobile are specific channels – using the “old media” mindset as expressed through that creative with them is self-defeating. Then again, this is a question way beyond those channels or creative itself. It relates to an issue we’ve discussed before – an emphasis on the tools rather than on the larger questions of marketing and consumer interaction.
Most marketing is still too inward facing. What I mean is that it’s too focused on the product. That mindset is dead in the consumer’s mind, in my opinion , and the focus needs to be on how to help a potential customer make their life a little better rather than how to sell more product. When that’s reflected in having a large Twitter following or a lot of Facebook “likes”, that’s great. Those things, however, are not ends themselves – they need to be a reflection of how well you’re answering those larger questions.
Using a TV ad in digital media can make sense – it’s hard to share something off your TV – but that elusive “viral” thing happens rarely. “Go viral” isn’t a strategy – it’s the end result of a great use of tools to facilitate a superior marketing strategy that’s focused on customers. It’s great that more dollars are flowing to the channels where those customers are spending more of their time – hopefully the next step is to use channel-appropriate creative.
Consult Keith 