I discovered this video via the Facebook page of Patrick Patparazzi Landry. It is the same type of short video, full of stats and thoughts, that makes you realize that the world of marketing is changing and it is changing fast. A few stats that you will discover in that video:
This year, traditional advertising is in steep decline.
Newspapers: -18.7%
Magazines: -14.8%
Radio: -11.7%
TV: -10.1%
My Space, You Tube and Facebook did not exist 6 years ago. They collectively get 250 million visitors/ month.
90% of the 200 billion emails sent everyday are spam.
This is another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://mediaconvergence.economist.com and http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com.
If you liked this one, you might also want to review this one about Social Media Revolution or this one about the Re-Invention of modern marketing. Similar contents, different formats, same powerful reality check. Great content, great stats.
It is not in every aspect of my life that I think that Smaller is better but marketing-wise, I believe smaller organizations will be in a better position to face the challenges of the post-recession economy.
Let’s face it, I love Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). I always liked the entrepreneurial culture that often emerge from them. It ignites me. However, as a marketer, I went through many frustrations in the past because most SME cannot afford the old School marketing tools (TV Advertising on TV, major promotional campaigns, billboards, big sponsorships and so on). This stuff was meant for Big National brands… Although the cost of traditional marketing is expected to go down, I do not think that lower costs should drive SME to use more the aforementioned traditional tactics to build their brand and be successful.
Seth Godin, recently did also a nice post about The Right Size of organizations. He gave numerous examples that show that bigger is often worse. He advocates that companies should not aim to get bigger.
And that is the whole point, we use to hear the bigger, the better? (it is sometime part of corporate mission statements) Yah right. I think this era is about to end. The post recession-era will greatly favor the Small and Medium Sized organizations. Why? It is plain and bold common sense. Let me give you just a few arguments
The new economy requires more flexibility than ever. Organizations must be able to adapt their business model to the new reality.
Post recession consumers will be seeking for “trustable” brands. Big corporations will have to re-build that link with their consumer base and one-way traditional marketing campaigns will not be enough. (And that should start with the big financial corporations…)
The era of conversational marketing has begun and small companies will be better equipped to leverage the new 2-way marketing communication tools (blogs, social media, etc). Why? Because of their human scale and their true authenticity. Also, the very affordable nature of the new tools make them awfully attractive to SME.
Post-recession consumers will buy more locally. To encourage the smaller local manufacturers and to show a greener attitude.
Smaller companies, because of their size, are more capable to adapt their business model to serve The Long Tail.
Small companies are usually more agile in their market-based decisions. Therefore, they are less liklely to be stucked in the “paralysis by analysis” syndrome that often affect larger organizations.
They are also more willing to take risks, I mean calculated risks. In that sense, the new marketing tools represent very low risk alternatives to traditional marketing media.
So those are the few top-of-mind-reasons why I think smaller organizations will succeed in the post-recession era. As a SME marketer, I can tell you that we are presently sowing all the seeds required to harvest market success when the economic storm will be behind us. What about you? Are you busy managing the status quo or preparing the ground to build your future growth?
I just landed in Vegas yesterday after a looooooooooog trip. Thanks to Air Canada. I was waiting for my luggage at the baggage claim when I saw this big billboard with this big booby bimbo inviting me to try her machine gun atThe Gun Store. Even if I come to the USA quite often, I always have mixed feelings when I see such ads…
Je viens d’atterrir à Vegas après un voyage extrêmement long. Merci à Air Canada. J’attendais pour mon bagage au carrousel #2 de l’aéroport quand j’ai vu ce gros panneau publicitaire avec la fille aux gros tetons qui m’invite à aller essayer sa mitraillette auGun Store, à 2 pas de la strip. Même si je viens aux United Steaks assez souvent, je ressens toujours un malaise quand je vois ce genre de pub….
Marketers, you will enjoy this video on the “Evolution of marketing”. I found it on www.youtube.com tonight. It comes from Germany but it is damn valuable for North American marketers.
Frequent readers of my blog will be able to better understand why I think Old School marketing principles will no longer apply as we are moving into this new era. Seth Godin describes it as the “New Marketing” in his book Meat Ball Sundae.
We are in 2009 and the NFL Superbowl still remains THE North American marketers annual rendez-vous. We wait 12 long months to enjoy what the Big Advertisers have prepared to get out attention, make us laugh and by any chance, get their brand remembered for a few days.
You haven’t seen this ad last Sunday. The official PETA ad has been banned for Superbowl braodcasting, it seems it attract lots of traffic online. (Note: This is R-Rated Stuff)
God, as a meat lover, I think I will turn veggie today!
You can watch all the TV spots on the Advertising Age Web site or on www.youtube.com. I do not want to debate on the creative aspects or the “remarkability factor” of these ads. Many other advertising experts already did it .
Although I gotta admit that my preferred ones are Monster.com with the Moose and Doritos’ Power of the crunch ;-) . Funny ads seem to catch more attention in such circumstances. See them below.
Simple but dawn effective!
Frito Lay didn’t reinvented the wheel here but it made me laugh and fits perfectly with Doritos brand positioning.
For those interested, Bob Garfield of Advertising Age shares his views on the Best and Worst commercials of this year’ Superbowl.
NOW, THE DEBATE.
As a marketer, I am questioning what are the reasons that push national advertisers continue to spend $2.6 million advertising dollars for each 30 seconds when there are plenty of other effective and measurable ways to spend their money. Yes I know, according to Nielsen Media Research, the broadcast of the game typically drawns between 87 million and 93 million people. That is a lot. And we do not even count the single views on www.youtube.com and other web channels after the game. But still, the ROI of one , two or 5 spots is very difficult to measure. That sum could buy several different product placements on TV shows, movies, songs and video games. Moreover, it could implement tons of web 2.0 initiatives, email campaigns, viral initiatives, etc. It could also buy two massive billboards in the middle of New York City’s Times Square, where a million people would see the ads each day for a full year, according to media services firm Zenith Media.
Did you know that these national advertisers pay up to 85% more to reach the same number of people they would reach during prime-time network programming?
To me, Superbowl ads are just noise and waste of money fro the advertisers. They do not help to build stronger brands; most advertised brands are already well recognized mass consumer brands (Coke, Bud, Doritos, etc) so what is the point to pay these huge amounts of money to continue to reinforce their brands while they could reinforce them with much cheaper methods? (Only exception might be godaddy.com but still, it became an household name over the past few years).
We often hear that if they do it, it is because they get a payback on their marketing investment. I doubt.
I believe that new marketing methods will make obsolete the iconic 30 seconds Superbowl spot. These new methods help the advertiser to surgically target their customers and also let them measure the impact of their investments. It is hard to compete with that.
Agree? Disagree? Express yourself by hitting the Comment link below.
“Out of the mouth of babes”… they so often say when a child just blurts out the truth. In this case, we should say “Out of the drawings of babes”…
Look at the following drawing handed by a first grade girl to her teacher as a homework assignment.
What are your first thoughts? Not so nice .
Let me explain the whole story behind that picture.
After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:
Dear Ms. Davis,
I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This drawing is of me selling a shovel.
Mrs. Harrington
Thanks to my friend Andrea T. who forwarded me this picture as a joke. However, after a good laugh, it made me think about something interesting. We, as marketers, do not pay enough attention about how our messages are understood by our audience. We assume they understand what we want them to understand. Whether it is online, on TV, radio, paper or even in face-to-face conversations.
I receive and I watch tons of creative ads that are certainly funny or original but, I am often struggling to identify what is the message the advertiser wants me to recall from its ad.
I am certainly not the only one.
To me, an unclear message equals noise and waste of money. Did you work on your USP recently?
PS: I will do a post on the importance of having a clear USP in a future post. Be sure to come back.
What are your first thoughts? Not so nice 
