What challenges are advertisers facing right now?
Aside from the usual challenges on where and how best to spend advertising dollars, the challenge facing many advertisers right now is the simple decision on whether or not to spend money on advertising at all. Even companies that are doing well are feeling that holding back may be the smart thing to do for the future. The danger in that is that there are other businesses who are taking advantage of the disappearance of their competitors to stay in the public eye and gain market share. When the economy bounces back (and it will) those on top are likely to see a bigger gain.
The other challenge is the sometimes overwhelming choice of mediums including print, television, radio, online, outdoor, and sponsorships. This creates a lot of confusion and competition for the advertising dollar. It takes someone with lots of experience to wade through the options and drill down to what is best for each company, and each campaign.
What common mistakes do advertisers make when creating campaigns?
Many times it is Advertising 101- many companies don’t research their target market and demographics well enough to identify who they should be marketing to, what group might give them the best return, and how best to talk to this group. Or they spend all their time, energy, and money on one aspect of a campaign without taking in to account the big picture. Creative that is spot-on with messaging and branding still doesn’t work if no one sees or hears it, and poorly designed ads will still be ineffective no matter how many times they are received. All aspects of a campaign need to work together to be effective. This takes time, energy and sometimes money to research, plan, and execute effectively. Then it needs to be monitored and adjusted as needed.
How are you seeing advertising change in the current economy?
In a word (or two) Social Media. Although it’s not yet replacing traditional types of advertising every type of business from retail to professional services is integrating social media into their marketing and advertising strategies. A recent report from Cision, a global public relations and media software company, notes that Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube “have matured from their youth-oriented, consumer-community roots into mainstream tools used by major corporations seeking to engage customers and employees more actively and productively.” Businesses are likely to get a variety of responses as to which mediums are sustaining their impact in advertising (TV vs print etc) but everyone agrees that social media and networking is a fast, efficient and relatively low cost way to get an advertising message to an audience. It takes time more than hard dollars and a bit of creativity to sustain, but for many it is well worth the time spent.
Are you seeing any trends/successful tactics in the online space?
Along with social media, the ability of online marketing to successfully target an audience along with its incredible reach makes online advertising a tool worth incorporating. The ability to quickly link customers directly to your extended message (web site) is a big advantage over traditional mediums, as well as the ability to better track which ads are working and which are not. Between search engine optimization (SEO) and the huge variety of web sites ready to sell advertising space the options are endless. As with other mediums though, picking the right outlets and the right program is worthy of some research and planning. A million impressions on the wrong web site or on a page buried deep within the site won’t sell your product any quicker than any other ads. And linking your ads to a web site not ready for prime time isn’t the best use of advertising dollars.
What do advertisers need to know before they allocate their budgets?
First, and again this may seem very basic, but what are the expectations? And how are you going to know if your expectations have been met? If you are expecting to grow your sales or market share by a particular amount then allocating enough marketing and advertising dollars to do the job is essential. If you are launching a new company or product then it may be necessary to spend more than your usual allocations to get the jump start you need. There are a variety of formulas out there to help decide how much to allocate for marketing (percent of gross profits, etc) but it is important to understand what you hope to gain before you undertake the process. For instance, undertaking a branding campaign (differentiating you from you competitors) is often a long term prospect and one that may not yield measurable ROI right away.
To watch the episode log on to: EOtv and select the EOtv August 24th - 28th episode.
Enjoy!
