• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, October 30, 2002

How do you use the web? Don’t answer this question like a marketer, answer it from the point of view of an everyday user. How does your mother or father use the web?

Understanding consumer behavior is a very important element when determining an effective strategy for any form of advertising, but it seems to be an element that is not always incorporated into online advertising campaigns.

When a consumer sees a television ad, what reaction does it create? When a consumer reads a print ad, what type of reaction does that create? When a user is exposed to an online advertisement, what type of reaction does that create?

For many forms of offline advertising, the reaction is a delayed one. In the online world, we are witness to the constant battle between the immediate action of the attention-deficit generation in contrast to the traditional reaction of a more established consumer. This reaction can be predicted based on the type of ad they are exposed to, the immediacy of the call to action or the offer that is being presented, as well as the weight of the action itself. For more informed purchase decisions on “bigger ticket” items or items related to personal health and well-being, this is more of an informed purchase decision, whereas entertainment items and lower cost items are a much less informed purchase decision, an “impulse decision” if you will. These are laid out rather clearly by applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs to an advertising model, and therefore we can indeed predict the turnaround time for a decision and be relatively accurate in our estimation.

These predictions are one of the fundamental reasons for advertising online. The risk-reward structure is such that you can test a hypothesis and receive almost immediate data on whether or not your hypothesis was correct, once again confirming the science of advertising. The cost of doing so here is less than other forms of media due to the immediacy of information.

So why don’t more people incorporate these ideas into their strategies online?

I think the reason is that our planning cycles are so short, that we are unable to incorporate this thinking into the development of a strategy for a campaign. Online advertising experiences the negative impact of its own immediacy. The period of time that is applied to planning and launching campaigns is increasingly less, even though the strategy and rationale is expected to be at least equal to that of other forms of media. Would you ask a television media buyer to put together and launch a network TV buy in less than a week? Would you ask a designer to develop a print ad and traffic it to the magazine, while the media buyer puts together the buy, in less than a week?

Did advertisers lose respect for the interactive medium?

I actually don’t think it’s a matter of a loss of respect for the medium, I think that people have more respect for online advertising now than ever before. I think the face of the advertising business has changed to reflect popular culture. We live in a world of easy-access, force-fed information sped up to the speed of light. It is beyond a “What have you done for me lately,” and is more a “What did you do for me this morning?”

So why am I bringing this up? Simply to make us all aware of the importance of strategic thought and adequate time for campaign planning. I have heard many people use the old adage “Cheap, Fast, and Good… pick two.” This is cliché because it is true. Truly effective campaigns require time and planning… do you think that the campaign for BMW Films was developed and launched in 3 weeks? I had nothing to do with that campaign at all, but I am sure it took a lot longer to develop.

It is important for all people involved in online advertising to understand that thought requires time. Without time, we never would have had the Sistine Chapel, we would have just had some “tagging” from some old Italian guys.

Good advertising requires time and thought too. After all, I think we have established that Advertising can be just as much Art as Science… Don’t you agree?