Electronics manufacturer LG had to pull an ad for its TV recording devices from Australian TV recently. Was it too racy for television? Not at all; the problem was that the advertisement listed the greatest benefit of the product in a way sure to get the attention of any TV viewer ? the ability to skip commercials!
This was something anyone could appreciate. The ad read: “When you replay, you can skip the ads.”. After having its ads pulled, however, the company changed their ad, using instead the far less powerful: “And when you replay, you can skip straight back to the action.”
While the broadcast networks have won the battle, the war is definitely going to go be won by the consumers, who will, of course, be able to skip commercials, so advertisers will have to find other ways of reaching viewers.
1. Product placement, sponsorship and other “non-ad” ads.
I recently watched the HBO series The Wire and I couldn’t help but notice the very clever product placement of Heineken in the series. Anytime the beer was on-screen, it was with the label facing the camera ? very clever marketing; it leads you to wonder exactly how much money changed hands. In Japan, where I spent some time recently, there is nearly no escape from advertising on television; the ads and programming are nearly indistinguishable! While most of us would probably prefer to keep ads and programming separate, this is a concept which is rapidly going the way of the dodo.
2. More precise targeting of messages, even mass media ones.
With TV recording technology increasingly in use in the home, advertisers are looking for more ways to get their message to consumers. Many have suggested that we may soon see TV advertising which works much in the way that pay per click advertising such as Google AdWords does. This could be much more cost effective for advertisers, but this is still a form of “push” marketing, even if it may work on a pay per impression model.
3. Information marketing and lead generation.
Companies are increasingly in the business of giving away (or even selling) audio files, DVDs, white papers, reports and other informational products which allow marketing departments to generate leads while being able to focus the bulk of their efforts on highly targeted marketing campaigns. I myself am now running a number of lead generation campaigns for companies who once wouldn’t have been at all interested in these sorts of direct marketing efforts.
4. Accountable, by-the-metrics marketing will become an imperative.
If you don’t do it, you’ll be eaten alive (or at the very least, have a few limbs savaged by hungry corporate alligators). The web obviously facilitates accountable marketing like no other medium, but “offline” direct marketing will also experience a boost at the expense of above the line advertising.
5. PR and spin will trump orchestrated brand-building and marketing efforts.
We’re already seeing more companies dedicating a larger slice of their marketing dollars towards press releases and other methods which can make their products and services into news ? and this is a trend which will only get bigger.
6. Even narrower niches.
Gaining greater “share of mind” will become even more difficult, and we can expect more focus on more highly-specialised niche markets as opposed to line-extension or diversification strategies.
7. Blue Ocean Strategies.
The rewards of value innovation will become even greater as smart companies refuse to mash themselves to a pulp butting heads with their competitors in hyper-crowded markets. Instead, the most successful companies and brands will strive to create uncontested market space – easier said than done.
Tags: Internet Marketing
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