The digital marketers advantage
This is where digital marketers have an advantage. By definition, they have to be more strategic, and they are usually more connected to the media. This is not because they are smarter; they just don't usually have the resources that offline groups have had for years. They have had to do more with less, and thus, they must be more knowledgeable about a wider variety of options available to them.
Digital marketers have not yet become mired in sameness. I remember interviewing a traditional advertiser looking to get into digital, who said he had 10 years experience. I looked at what he had done and said, "No, you have one year of experience 10 times." Cruel? Yes. But he had done the same thing over and over in his career. And that is one of the problems with traditional advertisers attempting to adapt to digital so late in the game. They have not been forced to learn new things for so long that they have forgotten how. Traditional advertising agencies have been siloed for so many years that their only connection to the other departments is often the traffic person.
There are other advertising avenues, most notably product placement and sponsorships that help mitigate the DVR. The show "Survivor" is a notable example of where product placement is prominent and therefore mitigates the DVR impact. But what do you do if your budgets do not allow for that?
Successful strategies in offline and understanding consumer consumption have been successfully accomplished for years. But many companies are moving beyond that into new and unproven territory. KFC garnered a lot of attention for embedding a message only available in one of its commercials targeting consumers using DVRs who were able to pause to get a discount at KFC. TV Guide printed a code on its March 6 issue that gave consumers a free download of "Battlestar Galactica" on iTunes.
Advertisers, marketers and studios are finally getting on board the digital revolution, albeit slowly. But what if you're just still doing 30-second drivel?
There are several spots in a commercial break. The idea is to structure your media buys so you are getting the most value for your money from consumers who use DVRs when watching TV. Here are some tips:
- Purchase the last 15 seconds in commercial breaks, right before the programming starts again, featuring an impactful message. You need to drop the hammer here. During fast-forwarding, many DVRs do a "reverse-skip" when you hit play after fast-forward, to compensate for the intrusion into the show. Also, when consumers skip too far they rewind and often watch the preceding 5-15 seconds before the show comes back on.
- Do not buy the first spot. Most programming has very visual and auditory clues when the shows fades to commercials. Consumers unconsciously pick up on this and instantly start their skipping process, or they go to the bathroom and the kitchen at the start of those auditory clues.
- Never get stuck in the middle spots.
- Prepare a very simple spot, one designed specifically to be seen when fast-forwarding. It should be a non-audio, very slow moving commercial that delivers its message in type. When a consumer sees something that stands out during a fast-forward, they inevitably stop. Even those without DVRs will notice your spot. It will have impact and break thorough the clutter.
Wake up traditional agencies!
Hire a digital strategist, someone who truly understands the technical implications of these technologies but also understands marketing, advertising and media. Technical knowledge without the marketing and media savvy is useless. Start involving your digital department in your offline creative and media process, not to add on "and here's the digital idea," but to discover the little nuggets of gold that can help you succeed for your clients. View them as "banner junkies" at your own peril. They understand the technical nuances of new advances in media and technology better than you ever will.
Traditional advertisers can continue to view themselves as superior and ignore technology and the internet, but those CMOs will be replaced very soon with people who know more than they do about advances in advertising.
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Sean X Cummings runs SXC Marketing, an advertising and marketing consultancy specializing in helping brands, agencies and vendors connect with their consumers more effectively.