This is Part 1 of a Series Titled “Advertising Online” which I’m writing to help local advertisers, brands and agencies understand how and why internet advertising represents a much stronger medium to market your brand. Part 2 will talk about accountability and Part 3 will discuss demographics and engagement.
You Have Limited Advertising Budgets
You probably have to make the decision between print, radio, television, direct mail and internet every week. If it weren’t for your pocketbook, you’d advertise everywhere. Most advertisers decide to buy ads based on their familiarity with a product.
Have you stopped to think about the reasons for making that same weekly purchase? Have you evaluated your budgets and the effective reach of your advertising dollars? Can you even do that (more on accountability in Part 2)? We are facing uncertain economic times; consumer spending will decrease, and your need to advertise effectively and efficiently has never been more important. You need to figure out the best place to spend your money and the internet represents the best medium.
Large Marketers Have Already Figured It Out
We obviously have some bias about online advertising at Spicy Bear Media, but the truth is the only advertising mediums that are growing today are the outdoor and interactive channels (interactive means email, search, online display, social networking, etc.). Outdoor is pretty worthless in small markets like Charlottesville. We always ask ourselves “if large brands and national mediums are seeing advertising dollars move online, why hasn’t this hit the local market?” The time will come when this trend dramatically affects local markets. Don’t you want to be ahead of the curve? According to ZenithOptimedia:
Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are all losing share to the internet, but newspapers are clearly suffering the most. Newspapers have been steadily declining in share since 2006, when they claimed 28.4 percent of global ad spend. By 2010 that number is expected to reach 23.7 percent.
The graph below is something we use in all of our presentations because it’s particularly telling about the future of advertising. It’s from a study by Forrester Research in which they interviewed 235 major marketers and asked them about effectiveness of various channels.
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