The economy is in trouble. Reaching people through marketing more efficiently will be more important than ever. Marketers, if your agency does not attempt innovative approaches to achieve a greater impact for your marketing efforts, fire them. Agencies, if your clients tie your hands and limit your ability to test new methods in search of higher returns for marketing efforts, quit. Both will put you (marketer or agency) in situations where waste happens because it's "safer" to spend money the way we know how. And waste is something you cannot afford in a slowing economy.
People throw around the term "experiential" ad budget, like it's a line item that is increased or decreased depending how much money a marketer has to "throw away" on the newest, hottest thing in advertising. In reality, the first time you use any form of advertising, it's experiential to you. If tomorrow you buy a billboard in Times Square for the first time, you are hoping that it shows return. Beyond that, you should be looking to see whether or not that billboard showed a higher rate of return than other places you could have allocated your marketing resources.
The purpose of experimenting is to find greater rates of return so that you can allocate your media spending more efficiently and effectively. This being the case, it would seem intuitive that experimentation becomes an even more important function when resources are limited. I would argue that given the current media ecosystem, where traditional methods are showing diminishing return and new media formats are constantly evolving, a marketer's ability to test the return on as many media options as possible is a major competitive advantage. What marketers, and their agencies, should be looking for in tough economic times are ways in which they can continue to reach people effectively given decreased budgets. If they can do this, a down economic cycle can offer the opportunity to increase market share, as competitors continue to spend limited resources against less efficient marketing methods.
A couple of things to remember while tightening your belt: All budgets are test budgets. You might have bought TV last month, but you haven't bought it this month. Is the return the same? How are you measuring return? Set goals and clear objectives when using a form of media you have not used in the past. Will you know it performed better than other places you are spending money? If it does, how quickly can you shift your resources? Don't forget that media vendors should be your partners in this; they should be bending over backward to demonstrate return so that you can make effective decisions.
Rate of innovation is a competitive advantage in every market, and marketing is not an exception. Never stop looking for ways to connect in ways that are clearer, deeper, more effective and CHEAPER. Let others use the argument that spending on what you know is the best way to ride out a down turn. If your client or agency tries to sell you that argument, fire them.
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Are you kidding me? Isn't the job of an agency to ALWAYS be searching for innovative approaches to achieve a greater impact?
This is an article that could have been written anytime in the past 100 years. The media options have changed, but the message remains - innovate or die.
Marcus www.adwisegroup.com
DONE!
I just left last Tuesday for this exact reason. Are you watching me?
Seriously this "retardation of innovation" is like a disease. It starts with a couple of censors and grows into a complete lack of progressive thinking. Nowadays you have to be light on your feet so to say. Engagement points and forms of media are coming and going , many with quality consumer interaction potential. A marketers ability to react or "fail and recover" are what will keep the marketer and the agency afloat and ahead of the curve.
I fear this disease is extremely contagious. Overcoming it will come from the bottom up, because suits are bottom line driven. The soldiers in the field (marketers) have the best intelligence. They see and hear what the client as well as consumer reaction is in their market. That kind of info is gold. Knowledge is the best ROI. I think a SEM social space could really help spread this type of activism. I bet if there was one, it would have #1 page rank.
http://www.blog.pghpunch.com
Content is king and always has been. It's about providing value. Advertising has zero value to the consumer (unless it's the Apple-PC campaign). Unlike advertising, valuable content earns residual returns with a potentially indefinite life span. All companies are media companies; most just haven't realized it. It's incumbent on companies to tell their stories, and the best way to do that is not through advertising but content. The line between the two is not that fine.
A good example of this is Change.org's shift in strategy to content & blogging: http://www.maxgladwell.com/2008/10/changeorg-shifts-strategy-to-blogging-and-content/. They don't have the budget for advertising in the first place, not that it would be money well spent, and the social networking strategy failed them. Content won over connecting.
These are the strategies that we offer to our clients. Create compelling, relevant content. Optimize that content for both search and social. Put an emphasis on blog relations to leverage that content and establish clear success metrics. Above all, free your inner media company.