Exciting new ideas and technological advances have fast-forwarded advertising and marketing communications to a level many of us never believed possible in our lifetime.On Madison Avenue, it’s real-life ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ as digital technicians get the big chairs and big bucks of former mainstream marketing gurus. The online ‘underworld’ has moved into the control room and they are forecasting an all-digital marketing universe. “Mainstream be damned!” say the digi folks. “Curse your snail-mail. Pooh on print!” Traditional ad agencies are befuddled. Mainstream media is frightened. Clients are confused. The only one that seems to be ‘getting it’ is the consumer! And that, fellow marketeers, is where we must always maintain our focus. What is the customer reading? What are they watching? What are they hearing? Where are they getting their information? What inspires them? What motivates them?
State-of-Advertising Today
Despite the frenetic email blasts to the contrary from the digi people, mainstream is very much alive and kicking in the consumer’s world. The majority of people are still watching TV (on TVs), listening to radio and to a lesser degree reading newsprint. In just a little over 10 years the Internet and related digital communications have grown to represent a now sizable and definable category in advertising/promotion expenditures. Here are the projected media expenditures for 2007 from an average of 25 highly successful (profitable) dealers in medium and large markets.
In future years, I’m confident those numbers will change somewhat in several categories. I predict newsprint will further decline and Internet/digital marketing increase. A few weeks ago one of the digi folks blasted an email proclaiming that television will be the biggest medium by far in the next 3 years, but that most of it will be delivered via the Internet as streaming or progressive video. I agree with that assessment to some degree but I think traditional delivery via cable and broadcast will stay powerful and relevant mediums for quite a few years to come. There will be a boom in video delivered on the Internet, much of it spawned by the acceptance and success of user-generated, relatively inexpensive home made videos. Which brings me to another important issue...
SMILE...You’re on YOUTUBE!
The automobile business is a fun business. That’s why I’ve loved it so much for the past 27 years. I’ve enjoyed many sales meetings and dealership gatherings where hilarious skits were put on to inspire and celebrate. But truthfully, many of these skits were for ‘internal use only.’ In one instance several salespeople mimicked their most difficult customers. The staff of one of my dealer client friends films a comical video each year showing the good-natured dealer often in what might be considered by outsiders as unflattering roles. A word to the wise: YOUTUBE.com and sites like it have changed the rules of privacy overnight. Add to that the tiny video cams and phone-cameras and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Some of the biggest corporations, movie stars and politicians have found that out the hard way.
Unfortunately, even trusted (former?) employees and seemingly satisfied customers are submission culprits in this game of ‘let’s see how badly we can damage and embarrass this company.’ Avoid skits and games under the company banner that you would not like to see replayed on the morning news or YOUTUBE. Watch your language in meetings. NEVER...even as a joke, tell a joke or story involving race, sexual identity, orientation, etc. etc. in a group setting where someone might be electronically eavesdropping. Even if you don’t suffer financial damage, the ensuing media fracas could be a public relations nightmare.
Here are a few other trends you should be aware of coming down the advertising track. I’ll elaborate more on these in future articles.
B.T.
This is the kind of stuff we only dreamed about in advertising 20 years ago. You don’t need E.T. to read your mind…you just need B.T. Behavorial Tracking…a way to track customer behavior and tailor advertising to inspire and motivate individual lifestyles. A few of the Internet early success stories like Amazon.com figured this out early in their existence and have been steadily tweaking and improving the process. Now several e-service providers are specializing in the development of ‘hehavioral tracking’ for every user of their email and web advertising programs.
Here’s the scary part. Just a few years ago B.T. was called spying. Tracing and tracking every move you make on the Internet. It even spawned a whole industry called SPYWARE which would remove tracking programs from your computer. Now this same technology is being adapted and embedded to avoid you tracking who’s tracking you. Neat huh?
Mobile Devices
Some of the digi people say mobile devices will be the next biggest phase of e-commerce development. Say goodbye to those ‘crude’ video phones. Steve Jobs just introduced the industry, but don’t let it drive you crazy either, or divert important resources from the traditional venues that continue to drive traffic and sales at most dealerships.
I’ve prepared some notes on both the subject of Blogs, and S.E.O. if you’d like to drill a little deeper on either of these subjects, e-mail me.
Do you have questions or comments about this or past AdTalk articles? Feel free to email them to CBC.
This issue of AdTalk is brought to you by Research Partners. Serving dealers for nearly 20 years to help reduce advertising cost: Research Partners
