Advertising: Now a Conversation
Another BusinessWeek article today, this one about how you can turn advertising campaigns into a conversation with consumers. While this may not be a new message for some of you, it is still worth repeating again and again in order to get people to actually act on this advice.
The problem advertisers are facing these days is the constant decline in the value of traditional advertising because of market fragmentation and the abundance of information available online from independent sources about companies and products. While 20th-century-style one-way advertising still has a role to play in customer communications, it is becoming less effective.
In fact, McKinsey recently predicted that "Traditional TV advertising will be one-third as effective in 2010 as it was in 1990" (other advertising media will be similarly effected). And, in a 2006 study, researchers found that only 53% of consumers said they believed ads were a good way to learn about new products (down from a 78% response in 2002.)
The example given in the article is Unilever's Dove campaign, which challenged one of the basic tenets of the beauty industry and engaged the market in a conversation about it. By doing this they started an open and direct collaboration with the market and with consumers - "Instead of passively receiving Dove's message, the market engaged in helping the conversation evolve."
The bottom-line is that companies need to quickly get used to the idea that they are no longer in complete control of their brand messaging. "Marketing that seeks to control has become an annoyance in a media environment of virtually unlimited choice." Companies should recognize that "there is a conversation going on in the marketplace that they should join, not dominate."
Joining means "providing information, answering questions, and responding to concerns... offer(ing) insights, develop(ing) a reputation, and creat(ing) a relationship with the most influential people in a given market." In such a scenario, traditional advertising can maintain a valuable role because it can "draw attention to the conversation and to the company's participation."
Posted by Universal Ad
The problem advertisers are facing these days is the constant decline in the value of traditional advertising because of market fragmentation and the abundance of information available online from independent sources about companies and products. While 20th-century-style one-way advertising still has a role to play in customer communications, it is becoming less effective.
In fact, McKinsey recently predicted that "Traditional TV advertising will be one-third as effective in 2010 as it was in 1990" (other advertising media will be similarly effected). And, in a 2006 study, researchers found that only 53% of consumers said they believed ads were a good way to learn about new products (down from a 78% response in 2002.)
The example given in the article is Unilever's Dove campaign, which challenged one of the basic tenets of the beauty industry and engaged the market in a conversation about it. By doing this they started an open and direct collaboration with the market and with consumers - "Instead of passively receiving Dove's message, the market engaged in helping the conversation evolve."
The bottom-line is that companies need to quickly get used to the idea that they are no longer in complete control of their brand messaging. "Marketing that seeks to control has become an annoyance in a media environment of virtually unlimited choice." Companies should recognize that "there is a conversation going on in the marketplace that they should join, not dominate."
Joining means "providing information, answering questions, and responding to concerns... offer(ing) insights, develop(ing) a reputation, and creat(ing) a relationship with the most influential people in a given market." In such a scenario, traditional advertising can maintain a valuable role because it can "draw attention to the conversation and to the company's participation."
Posted by Universal Ad
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