• by Todd Wasserman , Staff Writer, December 19, 2022

Thirty or so years ago, marketing followed a pretty simple template: Spend millions on TV advertising and millions more on print, and you got brand awareness.

In 2022, though, the media landscape has shifted. TV is no longer the sure-shot it used to be.

For instance, for the week of  Nov. 21-27, the  top program (NFL Thanksgiving Special – New England at Minnesota) got a 9.7 rating. Compare that to the top TV programs of 1992-93, when “60 Minutes” got a 21.9 average rating and the other top shows (“Roseanne,” “Home Improvement,” “Murphy Brown”) got similar ratings.

Compared to that time, there are seemingly infinite media choices for a modern consumer, including YouTube, Netflix and Disney+. Marketers need to think beyond TV to get their message across. Here are three interesting marketing efforts that paid off in 2022:

TSA bin ads to promote a Netflix show. To publicize the launch of its show “Wednesday, Netflix put ads on TSA bins—those bins where you put your shoes and belt while you go through airport security.

“I don't know if you've been traveling recently, but there's ads in the TSA bins," Peter Freidlander, the head of scripted series for Netflix, told Vulture. Friedlander explained: "It was very clever to have marketing inside where we're traveling at the busiest travel times in the U.S. They really tried to understand the humor of the piece and fill the marketing campaign with this very specific tone that's only Wednesday Addams.”

Walmart gains on Amazon. Walmart got the most online searches for Black Friday discounts, up 386% from last year, while Amazon fell to fourth place, behind Target and Kohl’s. Walmart’s. Walmart also gained share in grocery, CEO Doug McMillion said in a press release, and Walmart raised its full-year outlook for 2023.

Buy now, pay later. While the number of “buy now, pay later” loans grew more than tenfold during the pandemic, in an Ally Bank survey, twice as many people were using it recently than in August. Harvard research from last year found that 15% of the population had tried BNPL at least once, but some surveys show that since then the figure has come in at 50% or 60%.