Rethinking the Media Mix
Written by David Little
Friday, 13 October 2006
Happy with the results from your TV,
radio and print advertising? Ever feel like you aren’t getting the bang for the
buck you envisioned?
Maybe you should consider rethinking your
media mix. The concept of an advertising media mix is straightforward: Since no
one magazine, newspaper, Web site, or broadcast outlet is likely to zero in on
your target customer, choosing a variety of media based upon their ability to
reach your desired demographic is more effective.
At leading advertising agencies, building
the right media mix has become a near science where days untold time is spent honing,
polishing and refining media selections to create a mix with sufficient reach
and frequency to deliver. Gaining a thorough understanding of their client’s
product and universe of customers, analyzing ratings data and circulation
statements, and weighing certain intangible benefits each media candidate
brings to the table, are but a few of the steps necessary to build the right
media mix.
While the process has proven itself to be
highly effective over the years, changes in technology that give consumers
greater freedom to control media consumption demand new solutions and a
rethinking of what goes into an effective media mix. Armed with remotes and
digital video recorders, TV viewers easily circumvent commercials. Newspaper
and magazine readers are now just a click away from the same content on the Web
sans the full- or fractional-page ad adjacent to the article they used to pore
over on the printed page. In effect, technology is short circuiting the rather
simple media equation that implicitly promised advertisers the attention of
customers as they consumed the content their medium had to offer.
Consider the impact of digital video
recorders and remotes on the effectiveness of television advertising. A Feb. 13
article in The
New York Times reports that an estimated 7 percent of the 110.2 million
TV households in the United
States are equipped with digital video
recorders (DVRs). If that weren’t enough to give pause to TV advertisers, the
article reports that estimates hold “that 50 percent to 70 percent of viewers
playing back shows zip through the commercials.” How many TV households will
have DVRs next year and beyond?
The story isn’t any better in the print
world. “The
State of the News Media 2004” from journalism.org puts it bluntly:
“Newspaper circulation is in decline.” The report states that the percentage of
people reading newspapers began a long decline in the 1940s, but was masked by
a growing U.S.
population. By 1990, “circulation began to decline in absolute numbers,”
according to the report. Between 1990
and 2002, newspaper circulation dropped 1 percent per year, it says.
However, there is a bright spot on the
horizon, especially for those who are willing to rethink what makes up the
media mix. An emerging technology that brings together dynamic display and
media control at the point of purchase may be just the ingredient advertisers
need to reinvigorate their media mix. In fact, a recent article in Media
Daily News quotes Leo Kivijarv, vice president-research at Stamford,
CT-based PQ Media, who identifies this slice of the media pie as one of the
smallest advertising niches, but among the faster growing.
It goes by different names. In the retail
environment, it’s called In-Store Digital Media (ISDM). At hotels and resorts,
it’s known as digital reader boards. In public venues, like a sports arena,
it’s called digital signage. But regardless of what you call it, advertising to
people when they’re away from home, -often at the point of sale- is where you
may find the most bang for your advertising buck.
The Media Daily News article quotes the
author of a new study on out-of-home advertising as saying that this approach
to advertising is about to transition from a relatively obscure marketing niche
to a widely used, mainstream advertising medium.
In the article, Stephen Diorio, author of
the report, says out-of-home advertising is “at the tipping point. This is a
market that is poised to explode.” Since 2002, the article says, 700 digital
out-of-home networks have been launched, accounting for $1.2 billion in
advertising this year.
What’s in your media plan? Maybe it’s
time you rethink your media mix alternatives. This may be the moment to
redirect a portion of your advertising budget away from declining media
mainstays and into alternatives on the rise, like out-of-home advertising.
Free
White Paper available for download
here. Why Digital Signage Works gives a quick overview from an
industry perspective on the fundamentals of digital signage. Included are some
recently published findings by Neilsen Media Research on the measured impact of
strategically placed digital signs.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage authority with 20 years of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing for Keywest Technology in Lenexa, KS, a software development company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling, management and playback.
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