Marketing from the 70’s is Dead
If you switch on your television, open a traditional newspaper, buy a magazine, go to the cinema, or if you listen to the radio you are still forced to consume the old fashioned advertising from a few decades ago. But let’s be honest. Who is not skipping those ads? Marketing from the 70’s and 80’s is dead.
When there is a short advertisement break in your favorite TV show don’t you switch the channel? You probably do. At least as long as your remote control has not fallen behind the sofa and you are not too lazy to pick it up.
Your Competitor Wins
TV advertisement is dead – at least as long as you intend to target humans younger than 60 years. Why? What are people doing when TV advertisement are aired? If they don’t skip the advertisement in the first place they still do everything else than paying attention to the advertisement. As soon as TV advertisements are aired people grab their phones. Let’s be honest, people even use their phones while watching movies. They scroll through the Instagram stories watching videos and photos of their friends. Right in the middle of the Instagram feed, there is an ad from your competitor – he wins. They are watching a funny cat video on Facebook and next to the video there is an ad from your competitor – he wins. They are scrolling through their friends Pinterest Pins looking for a new wallet. Your competitor has the best product photo on Pinterest – he wins. People are reading a valuable blog article of your competitor their friends have recommended them via WhatsApp – he wins. They are snapping photos while sitting on their couch and they use your competitors Snapchat filter before they publish it to their 500.000 fans – your competitor fucking wins!
The attention shifted from TV to the Smartphone
While you are airing your TV ads for millions of dollars your competitor spends a few thousands of dollars on social media marketing and he wins. This is not only true because the attention has shifted from the TV to the smartphone. It is also true because social media marketing allows a two-way relationship. While they don’t pay any attention to your TV ad they can react to social media ads. People have the possibility to order your product within seconds. They can share your valuable content with a single click. They can give you instant feedback and feel certain: people will tell you if your product sucks. If they have questions about your product they can simply post a comment below your Facebook Ad or they can send you a message immediately. And if your product is great they will share it with their 5.000 fans on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. If your product is fucking great these friends will share your product once again to their friends and so on.
Social Media Wins – Do the Math
Simply do the math: a girl is sitting bored in front of the TV is discovering a great product (of your competitor) she loves it. She shares the product with her 5.000 Instagram fans. They love it as well and they continue to share it with their averagely 13.420 followers. 5.000 x 13.420 = 67,100,000 people. While you are transferring millions of dollars to CNBC to air your boring advertisement spot your competitor create valuable content on social media and he wins – for a fraction of your costs. And by the way: customers trust word-of-mouth above all other marketing media. If my friend is recommending me the best laptop bag via Facebook, I will not give a fuck about your TV ad which tries to lead me to believe that it is the best!
Native Advertising
When you want to advertise on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat it has a great advantage over traditional advertising via TV, radio, or print. Social media advertisement appears natively within your target customers social context. Your ad will appear in the photo of your customers two best friends. If done right social media marketing is extremely powerful. But in order to succeed in social media marketing, you need to change your perspective. Don’t think as an advertiser or marketer. You need to put yourself into the position of your customers: the consumer. Try to understand how they are consuming content. Try to understand the reasons why they are sharing content. Do they share content because you tell them to do so? Or do they share content because it is exciting, funny, or mind blowing?
Marketing becomes Publishing
Change your job title from Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Publishing Officer. Do not spend your day thinking about a strategy how to market your product. Instead be a publisher. Create content that converts on Facebook and all other social media. Don’t create content or advertisements which are optimized for broadcast – a form of advertisement limited to one-way communication.
If you create valuable content to build brand awareness on social media your advertisement will actually be helpful for consumers!
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What do you think, is traditional advertisement dying? Do you still pay any attention to TV, radio, or print ads? Leave your opinion in the comments and I will join the discussion!
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