Advertising Is Dead… Again!
Unless you have a superbowl budget or award winning creative, your ads probably aren’t getting the attention they deserve.
A few years back a book called “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR” discussed how advertising’s ineffectiveness can no longer be overlooked. There used to be a saying that for an ad to work, a viewer or consumer should see that message at least 7 times. Then it was 12, followed by 20, and I’ve even heard it repeated as “if a consumer doesn’t see your ad at least 30 times they don’t see it at all”. Oh really? After anything even close 10 times, I’m changing channels or tuning out this repititious drivel.
So how does a marketer reach a consumer these days? A savvy marketer is going to go where consumers are to put their message in front of them. But isn’t that just advertising again?
The key is value. Give something people want, and make it accessible. Providing value in your offering is going to do much more than advertising. You can’t ignore that advertising is great for raising awareness, but on the web there is this thing called “bounce rate”, which refers to people that visit your site and click the back button. That’s wasted advertising dollars if your bounce rate is high. But a truly decent value proposition has many advantages. Consumers become your marketers, spreading the word for you. How this is done will have to wait for another time.
