Whitespace: Breaking the inertia of our advertising habits

By Mark Fowler

Television, radio and print media advertising most often spring to mind when we consider the means of promoting our company’s brand, goods and services. This message is often repeated when I speak to fellow Baby Boomer (aged 42-60) advertising colleagues about potential campaigns.

Decades of marketing experience and successful advertising campaigns, built on well understood advertising skills sets and processes, have created the current dominant industry logic (and inertia) that television, radio and print are the most effective media for advertising.

But over the last 10 years the Internet and new digital media have changed everything.

Consider this:

• All consumers have a huge and growing range of new digital choices: mobile phones and messaging, email, Internet chat, Google news, electronic games, cable TV, Voice-over-IP, etc.
• Different consumer generations gather news, socialise and play in different places. For instance Generation Y (aged 6-25) are much more likely to engage in the following activities than Generation X and Baby Boomer generations: play online games, send instant and text messages, download music and videos, read and create blogs. (1)
• Jack McKenzie, an advertising strategist, says of Generation Y: "Their reliance and trust in non traditional sources - meaning everyday people, their friends, their networks, the network they've created around them - has a much greater influence on their behaviours than traditional advertising." (2)
• Australian online advertising in 2006 is tipped to add 60 per cent on 2005, to $620 million, "stealing thunder from free-to-air TV". (3)
• The elusive 18- to 34-year-old male demographic in the US spent more time in 2003 playing video games than watching prime-time TV. TV commercials last about 30 seconds; print ads are often seen for a fraction of that time. But with a video game, potential consumers could be interacting with a product for seven to 10 minutes at a time. (4)

As consumers and business people both shift and diverge (by generation) in their media choices, so will the ways in which we hope to reach and influence them with our marketing messages.

If you haven't already, it's probably time to revaluate how and where you and your advertising agent spend your advertising dollars. To begin the conversation you might ask yourself:

• Which generational group(s) will be the primary target of our company's brand, goods or services advertising messages?
• What media types are the most effective means of reaching them?

And you might ask your advertiser:

• What percentage of your total clients' advertising spend is delivered through TV, radio and print versus Internet, gaming and mobile phone media?
• How many of your team are specialists in digital and online advertising?

Bottom line: Changing the way you do business and breaking the inertia of previous success is always difficult. But spending advertising dollars to promote in locations where nobody is looking is just a waste of money.

Notes

1. Susannah Fox & Mary Madden, "Generations Online", Pew Internet & American Life Project, 22 January 2006
2. Tom Zeller Jr., "A Generation Serves Notice: It's a Moving Target" , The New York Times, 22 January 2006
3. Christopher Vollmer, John Frelinghuysen & Randall Rothenberg, "Old Media Fumbling with New Technology", Sydney Morning Herald, 20 June 2006
4. William Weir, "And now a game from our sponsor", The Journal Gazette Fort Wayne, 22 June 2006

Mark Fowler is a Director of Global Foresight Network Pty Ltd, a business consultancy which provides research, strategic advice, facilitation and training services to help organisations navigate the 21st Century. Whitespace is an AIM monthly feature focusing on trends, opportunities and new concepts in the business world.