Tag Archives: advertising

September 10, 2008 · 7:52 am

MIMA

The Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association does some interesting things.  One of them is to run an annual interactive summit which, over the past seven years, has become a premiere interactive marketing event in the Midwest.  They’re running a program now which is the topic of today’s screed.  This program – a blog carnival – asks folks to post on certain topics and the one I’ve chosen is “Where does content start and marketing begin…or vice versa?”

I’m not sure if any of you watch Mad Men but it’s well worth the time or some space on your DVR.  This week, a coffee client – Martinson’s – was presented with a new campaign designed to market his product.  The ad team offers the client a “song,” a mixture of a Brazilian or French guy singing about a “coffee-colored exotic girl” and an “exotic brew.” “Is this a jingle?” the client asks. The response is “It’s a song and it’s a mood. It’s definitely more than jingle.” Content? Marketing?

I don’t believe there is any differentiation between content and marketing any more. As stated in the Cluetrain Manifesto, “networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.” Creating content is part of the conversation these days – heck, it IS the conversation. When a commercial entity creates content, it’s marketing.

This post is a fine example. While I certainly have a point of view and want to convey it, I also have a consultancy that advises clients about issues such as these. MIMA’s readership, (hopefully), likes this content and emails me to begin a conversation about how I can help them. Voila! Marketing!

One needs to be mindful that “content”, in my mind, goes beyond advertising. It truly is something of value that advances and enhances the particular conversation. Cluetrain again: “markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.” Part of that intelligence is the ability to distinguish 1.0 companies from 2.0, especially in the digital media. Marketing is content, content is marketing.

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July 25, 2008 · 8:47 am

The Toolbox

There are two studies out this morning that are interesting to me (and hopefully to you!).

The first is

a recent survey conducted on behalf of PRWeek and Manning Selvage & Lee (MS&L) by Millward Brown indicates that just may be the case: Despite weakened economic conditions, over 75% of senior marketers say they expect spending for new media and online initiatives to increase in the next year.

The second one is

a recent study by Borrell Associates, a Williamsburg, Va.-based market research firm, uncovered three major trends:

  • Spending on online display ads (web page banners, pop-ups, etc.) have been flat the past two years and are expected to top out at $12.6 billion in 2008, then decline more than 50 percent by 2012.
  • Paid search advertising will peak at $16.9 billion by 2009 and start declining.
  • Online promotions generated about $8 billion in 2007. This category will nearly triple by 2013 to $22.8 billion, exceeding all other online advertising categories, including paid search, banners, email and online audio/video advertising.

How does one reconcile these two?  I believe they’re both right – spending on digital media will continue to grow.  It should – it’s an emerging medium and consumers’ time spent and engagement with it continues to grow.  I’m not sure why there is a giant difference between good advertising and good promotion.  If I’m reading the survey right, it seems as if the difference is that the “promotional” online ads tie to a contest or some other action.  I was always taught that all advertising is supposed to have a call to action and that, it seems, is what we should be measuring.  There are lots of other factors such as the creative to consider before blaming the messenger – the medium.

It’s unfortunate that some CMO’s will read the above survey and turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.  There are lots of tools in the marketing toolbox.  Digital media, and display ads within digital media (hopefully with a specific, measurable, excellent call to action) are a big part.  An even bigger, more important part is using all of the tools at one’s disposal as we continue the conversations with the public.

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June 23, 2008 · 8:29 am

Reaching the young ones

Nielsen reports that per person, kids aged 2-17 viewed more video streams on the web than those over 18 and spend more time watching video from home (probably because they aren’t away at school nor at work).  The really young kids focus on sites associated with children’s TV shows and toys – no shock there.  Teens tend to focus on chat with Stickam the number 1 video site.

Strangely, they don’t seem to be spending all that much time there – be interesting to see in the numbers change a lot with school ending for the summer.  Teens 12-17 only spend about two and a quarter hours a month watching online video, roughly a minute and a half for every stream they watch.  Kids under 12 watch fewer streams but each one slightly longer – guess their web-induced ADD hasn’t kicked in yet.   Of course, these are just video numbers – Facebook, MySpace, and all the other places kids hang out are on top of this.

And yet, the gap between the 20% of time spent with media (probably even higher with this group) and the 7% of ad dollars spent in these media is still wide (yes, I”m aware that several commentators think this is unimportant – fodder for another post).  Like all of us, marketers fall into the comfort zone of doing what they did before just because they did it before.  Change is hard but when things are changing around you, what else can one do but adapt?  Yes, it’s hard to market to kids on the web, especially those under 13.  Yes, COPPA is a pain.  But you’re missing the boat (and your target) if you think you can ignore this data.  Hopefully the dollars will begin to chase the eyeballs and let’s hope as well that the places where these elusive audiences are hanging out run themselves carefully until the revenue arrives.

NOTE:  I woke up this morning and heard that George Carlin has gone on to his cosmc rewards.  More on him later.

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