It's Cool To Read the Newspaper

I read a blog the other day talking about traditional advertising becoming obsolete. It talked about the death-spiral for traditional media. This blog author claimed that because of the fall of traditional advertising, business should direct their advertising dollars to interactive advertising and social media. It really annoyed me. Then I managed to score a mini Milky Way Midnight. That dark chocolate with the creamy caramel and vanilla nougat gets me every time.

No one can deny that consumer behavior has changed. It has changed, it is changing and it will change. Yes, we have become accustomed to getting our information when we want it and where we want it. The Internet is to thank for our information demands. It’s everywhere. We have the Internet on our cell-phones. Remember when they came in bags? Now they’re pocket-sized and with the touch of your finger you have access to all the information you can possibly imagine. It’s rare to walk down the street without catching a window cling that says “Wi-Fi Available Here.” Google, Googled and Googling are now part of the Miriam Webster Dictionary. As a media buyer and planner by trade I do believe that interactive advertising should be part of most company’s media plans. Why wouldn’t you want your brand to be where your consumers are, where they are spending the most time? It’s advertising 101. The key is you have to do it correctly.

In my opinion and through my experiences, throwing banner ads on websites research has determined your target market visits isn’t going to draw people to your website. An average click through rate is .04%. Shocking? Think of how often you click on banner ads? Or think about how often you try to x-out of a rich media ad and accidentally click a little to the left of the x. Sure I notice banner ads, when I’m spending my 4-5 hours a day on the Internet. Being a media buyer, I probably notice these more than the average consumer, but I can tell you, I do not click. Even the coolest of rich media, a T-Rex claw slashing across my screen advertising the dinosaur exhibit at the local museum, does not tempt me to click. If I am interested, I will visit that site on my own time because I want the information I am looking for where I want it and when I want it, and I will not be distracted by dinosaur talons, not even if he has a super cool roar. But I remember it. In my opinion and experience, banner ads should be used for branding purposes only. There your target market is, there your brand is. They’re there, you need to be too.

Similarly, creating a Facebook and Twitter page, aren’t going to get you followers. Consumers are smarter than that. Unless you have something relevant to say or are offering us something we want, we simply don’t care. And how are you going to let me know that your business is on Facebook and Twitter, and that you could possibly offer me something I want? TRADTIONAL MEDIA!

Use the Internet to Google statistics on how many people have a DVR and how many people have satellite radio in their cars. Take a look at the Nielsen and Arbitron data. It does not lie. TV viewership is not going away. In fact, Modern Family’s TV audience is up 19 percent from last year according to Media Life Magazine. Consumers are listening to the radio. People Meters show that. There are also various economical reasons that a few newspapers are ceasing publication. Think of the state our economy since the war started. Even though we can just Google it, there is something to be said about coming home to the latest issue of People Magazine in your mailbox, or a youngster’s first paper route.

Interactive media is important, but it can’t be a replacement for traditional advertising. Use it correctly. Use it for branding. Social Media is great. In fact, someone once said the greatest type of advertising is word of mouth, but have something relevant to say. Use your traditional mediums for the purposes the advertising gods gave them and additionally, use them creatively to drive consumers to your website or your social media sites. Traditional media is not dead, it’s not going anywhere. The traditional media mix has expanded, that’s all. So Mr. Blog writer whose name will remain anonymous, traditional media is not dead, dying or on a death-spiral. The data is there. Google it!

Image: Dean Ayres

Addy deserves a gold star!

Millennials, Generation Y, Generation Me, Generation Why, Net Generation: all terms used to describe one generation. My generation.

Almost every time people mention Millennials they are trying to understand how to make us buy more of what they sell. Who would blame them when with 92 million members this is the largest generation in US history? Ohh, did I mention our $200 billion purchasing power?

Here is my problem with many of these articles, blog posts, podcasts, webinars, etc.: almost everything about marketing to Millennials inevitably includes connecting with us on social networking platforms because, apparently, Facebook is our life. Some of these articles even claim that connecting with us online is the only way to get our attention for more than three seconds.

I, as a Millennial, appreciate that brands are trying to connect with me where I spend the most of my time, but that is not Facebook.

It might sound surprising to some, but Millennials do have analog lives. Without them we wouldn’t have digital lives. If we didn’t attend live concerts and didn’t meet people, we wouldn’t have content to share on Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Twitter, and whatever platform is popular tomorrow.

Our analog lives power our digital lives. We love going to concerts, bars, clubs, etc. and we love documenting our experiences so that we can share them with our friends. Some even claim that my generation is more concerned with documenting our experiences rather than experiencing.

What does this have to do with marketing to Millennials? The better question is: Are you providing experiences worth documenting and sharing? If so, how are you empowering us to share these experiences? Providing experiences worth sharing is probably the easiest way to harness the social graph because we trust our peers more than we trust brands and we tend to overshare.

Here are a few brands that provide experiences worth sharing and empower Millennials to share:

The Milwaukee Art Museum does a great job engaging with young people during events. Every month the museums has an After Dark event with arts, crafts, music, drag queen contests, break dancing shows, fashion shows, etc. Most of the attendees not only enjoy the events, but also document them and share the pictures on their social networks. Besides providing an experience worth documenting and sharing, the museum also has a photo booth and makes the pictures available to the attendees with a Flickr page.

Another example is the Milk Made site for New York Fashion Week. Yes, New York fashion Week is definitely an event worth documenting, at least for me, but that is only half of the story. The site allows attendees to cover Fashion Week live with their cell phones. Snap a picture and share it on the site. Sharing can’t get easier than that.

Providing experiences worth sharing doesn’t mean organzing only large, extremely popular events. It can be any experience that is different from your audience’s ordinary life. Remember what Estee Lauder did last year? Professional Estee Lauder makeup artists provided free makeover to ordinary women and took a picture. Of course, all these women used these pictures for their profiles and avatars with Estee Lauder’s logo in the background of the picture. Look at Jeep’s Come Together Flickr Pool, where hundreds of people from around the world are sharing their love for the brand and its vehicles.

Is the experience you create worth documenting and sharing?

Conan O’Brien is back on television starting in November. After the much publicized breakup of Conan and NBC, the lanky, red-haired stand-up begins hosting his new show on TBS. (for those who want it, embed this code on your site and add a countdown: <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.teamcoco.com/widget/countdown.js”></script> )

For TBS, Conan seems a perfect fit for their “Very Funny” strategy. I know there are plenty of you out there that don’t get Coco, but personally I love him. I’m not really a Leno or Letterman fan and Conan gives me an option at the 10pm central timeslot. And the Conan lead in can really only help the George Lopez show.

Will Conan get the last laugh against NBC in the end? My real question is if this talk-show takeover by a “cable” channel is the final deathblow to network television stations. In the early days of television the networks ruled. All the best shows, events and news aired on network stations. But today? Sporting events are owned by ESPN. Cable shows like Mad Men and True Blood are winning as many, if not more, awards than network television. (HBO took top honors at the Emmys this year.) And with CNN, FOX News and MSNBC there are more news options than you can count. And yes, I realize two of those are technically “networks”, but they’re not by all the other network channels on the cable guide.

But until now the networks have owned the night-time talk show. Sure, Comedy Central had The Daily Show and Colbert Report and Chelsea has her niche audience, but no cable station was going head-to-head with the big boys. The Conan/Lopez combination is the first true competitor to the networks in this arena…and it has some punch.

As long as the networks continue to own local news there will be a certain je ne sais qua to being NBC/CBS/ABC/FOX, but if the networks aren’t dead, they’re certainly headed towards life support. With the likes of TBS, AMC and F/X all carving out audience segments (and winning awards), the networks had better get their brands in order. If they don’t, will we be saying goodbye to a major network? Doubtful because of the dollars behind them, but maybe they’ll just end up being the local news channels? Sounds ridiculous now but we’ll have to wait and see.

This year I made it a point to capture as much footage as I possibly could during the United Adworkers softball games. What I was going to do with it was uncertain at the time, but I somehow managed to turn it into this short, and hopefully entertaining two-part documentary.

Enjoy.