If you were relaxing on Sunday evening in front of the television, you might have been sitting down to watch Prime’s new show,
‘Mad Men’, which is all about the 1960s advertising industry.
In the UK, men’s style bible
Arena Magazine covered the launch of the program with an article on advertising – talking to the relevant movers and shakers in the UK’s ad industry.
Unsurprisingly, there was no interview with a high-flyer at
Saatchi, no appraisal of TVCs; in fact there wasn’t a dickey bird on traditional methods or agencies. Why is this is not a surprise? Because they were talking to the men who had been creating effective marketing campaigns, promotions that had been noticed for all the right reasons, and almost all of it was online and involved direct marketing.
As the economic downturn puts pressure on company budgets and managers become more keen to know whether they are receiving a decent return on their marketing investment, it is imperative that advertising agencies are able to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.
With greater ad avoidance there it is ever more important that companies send out relevant information to their consumers. Putting out a TVC has its advantages, but there are a hell of a lot of negative aspects as well – is it reaching the right people? Is it effective? How many people skipped past it or didn’t watch it at all? The simple answer is that you can’t be sure for definite because it can’t be measured. This could equate to an awful lot of dollars slipping down the drain.
And herein lays the problem with most traditional methods. It’s not that they can’t be good, but in the current climate, companies need to get the most from their marketing investment. They need effective, measured and accountable communications with their consumers.
PR and direct marketing (and when I say direct marketing I don’t mean mail drops and leaflets in your post box) can cover off these issues. It all begins with knowing your customers and how they’re likely to react. Good DM agencies will have analysts who measure all the data that they can get from client databases to allow them to start tracking trends and developing a thorough understanding of consumer behaviour. This understanding can then be turned into a strategy that will cut through to provide the most effective method of talking to key markets. The end result is that only the most relevant audiences are sent a piece of communication. From this you’ll know, for instance, how many people have received your piece of communication and how many people responded through the necessary channels. In fact, you’ll know exactly who responded and therefore gain even more valuable data to further inform your marketing decisions.
DM opens up a whole new world of communications, with the ability to do personalized pieces and trigger based programmes (so that people receive information at the most convenient time to them). Companies can also
interact live with the brand or measure how long someone spent on a website and at which point they clicked off.
While technology opens up plenty of opportunity for ad avoidance it also opens up a greater opportunity for greater communications that will be relevant to that person and therefore more effective. The way society communicates is changing and so the way companies advertise will have to as well. The Mad Men of the 60’s don’t stand a chance.
If you would like to know more about direct marketing, you can contact
Nick Bell, new Account Manager at leading Auckland-based DM agency,
Twenty, at
nick@twenty.co.nz.
I am very aware of the fact that, as PR people, it is vital that we understand and keep track of what is going on in the rest of the communications industry (mainstream advertising, direct marketing, journalism etc). After all, we often have to work alongside people from these other professions, to achieve what a client is after. For this reason, I would be more than happy to post any information or advice that people in these areas feel may be useful to us public relations consultants. Just drop me a line at
jennifer@intermediary.co.nz if you would like to share something with us. Hopefuly this will lead to our individual professions understanding each other a little better, resulting in much better outcomes for our clients.
