If you’ve been running a business over the last 10 years, you know
how fast technology is moving and have seen the sweeping changes
underway in the advertising and marketing industry. Traditional
advertising venues like print publications, telephone directories, radio
and television are under siege. As more and more people embrace the
Internet and interact with each other online, traditional media becomes
less effective, compelling ad agencies, marketers and designers to take
their product pitches online.
Unfortunately, this paradigm shift encompasses more than just media
selection. Effective online advertising also demands new creative
executions. In recent years, too many ad agencies have just applied an
online Band-Aid to their print creative, uploaded it to the Internet and
hoped for the best. What they got was the worst: creative strategies
that don’t work and too often alienate the recipient.
The Rise of Online Communities
Interacting with the consumer via radio, television and print
has never been up close and personal. Word-of-mouth advertising (WOMA)
and, occasionally, direct mail, have given us the ability to get closer
to the consumer. With the exception of the one-on-one sales call, no
method of advertising has ever afforded us the intimacy and interaction
with the consumer allowed by the Internet. Print and electronic media
can only aspire to this level of interaction.
The Internet is the first true opportunity for cost-efficient,
effective one-on-one interaction with the consumer. Thanks to MySpace,
YouTube, Facebook and BoingBoing, the term “online community” has been
written into the advertising and marketing handbook. The power shift
from bureaucracies and organizations to fluid, rapidly expanding
communities of like-minded individuals is staggering in its impact on
how we communicate.
Blogs are changing how we as a society gather and report news and
events. YouTube and other social networks used successfully by viral
marketers have leveled the playing field. It’s now cool to be real, edgy
and under-produced. Slick and pre-packaged is out — at least in the
world of online communities. The success of Starbucks as a major new
brand is proof positive that a company can become an overnight sensation
without ever running a print or television ad. Effective use of viral
marketing techniques, word of mouth and buzz marketing can create a
national brand presence.
Creative: It’s About ‘Getting Real’
The trend to create advertising messages that are real doesn’t mean
everything now has to look like it was designed or produced in someone’s
garage or basement. Getting real has more to do with the ad message
itself and how truthful it is to the consumer. Most folks in the ad
industry always suspected that consumers were getting tired of being
fooled by ad messages that were more fluff than substance. Now we know.
How important is it to the success of your marketing plan to embrace
and honor this new consumer commitment to real advertising? Consider
this. The consumers that join online communities tend to be influencers
and advocates. They are what ad industry gurus call “promoters.” If they
like your product or service, they will promote it aggressively and
often to family, friends and colleagues.
In the past, this kind of promotion was slow and linear, progressing
from one person to another. Today, promoters access online communities
that send the good news about your product or service exponentially,
exploding in all directions at one time and creating a “buzz” throughout
the Internet. This kind of unbiased, third party buzz will sell a lot
of widgets today.
More About Blogs
Remember when pay per click campaigns on Google were cheap and you
could place a company at the top of the search page for 25 cents a click
or less? Now that the power of search has been discovered by almost
everyone, those days are gone forever. Internet search and e-marketing
lists are now two of the most powerful tools in the marketing toolbox.
Although blog advertising grew 300% last year, it is still undiscovered
and underutilized by the marketing and advertising industry.
For the most part, blog numbers are too small to show up on the radar
screens of the big brands. However, since bloggers are influencers and
promoters, their value to a good marketing plan is priceless. Too often,
the big marketing and advertising companies get caught up in the
shortcomings of their own analytical tools and fail to recognize
emerging marketing opportunities. Early adopters of new technologies are
almost always entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Harnessing the Power of the Web
Most smart companies today recognize that wherever their web site goes,
so goes their brand. The Internet is now the first choice for consumers
60–80% of the time when they’re looking for anything. This means that a
company better be at the top of the results page when a consumer types
in a search phrase that relates to their product or service. If not, a
competitor may very well get the sale, in spite of a large television,
newspaper and radio advertising budget.
With the popularity of online communities and social networks,
today’s effective company web site can’t afford to be static like a
print brochure. It needs to be engaging, galvanizing and interactive.
Customers are no longer readers and browsers; they are participators in
the company mission, offering valuable feedback and insight into the
benefits of the product line. Forums, polls, chat and e-newsletters are
just a few of the dynamic components of today’s company web site. In a
world where a fan can write the best Super Bowl ad, a company’s
customers are fast becoming an integral part of the advertising and
marketing team.
Ken Mays is President & Creative Director of Mays & Associates, Inc., (www.ad-mays.com)
an innovative web hosting & design firm based in Columbia,
Maryland. Mays develops high impact creative strategies for print,
television, radio, interactive, multi-media, and the Internet. Ken is an
award winning writer and designer and can be reached at
410-964-9701 or ken@ad-mays.com.