Less is More
And better too…
Less is not only more—it’s cheaper and better too. With response rates and effectiveness falling across direct, digital, mobile, and broadcast media to levels below rounding errors, I think it’s high time to address the 800 LB gorilla in the room. 99% of all media buys are either wrong or irrelevant as they pertains to actual people buying real things. Somewhere in the piles of impressions getting purchased 24/7/365, there must be some that work significantly better than others. It’s time to find the haystacks made of needles. It’s time to spend less, sell more, and repeat often. That requires real data.
Content vs. Confidentiality
We all love to have free content, sticky apps, and utility data at our finger tips. Two-way communications on a multitude of media platforms, powered by cell phones with 90’s era mainframe power, and we wonder why data is more readily available than we like. We love cheap access and smartphones along and the plethora of services and content available. Ever think about what subsidizes that eco-system? Advertising and data. The question really isn’t whether we want this data used or not; rather we have to ask if we are willing to pay for the things that are free and subsidized today. Now that we have determined out unwillingness to pay for what is already pretty free, what are we to think?
Context vs. Clutter
Is it creepy to get an ad after visiting a website? Is it really any creepier if that ad was sent after visiting that specific location? In today’s day and age, is this really much of a surprise that this happens? What is more shocking is that it doesn’t happen all the time and that the ads served to us are very often for goods/services/products/things we don’t need or want and wonder why it is aimed at us. I haven’t eaten fast food or beef in over 30 years and still can’t figure out why ads for Burger King and Mcdonald’s pop up throughout my content feeds. And, as a 60-year-old male, I must say, I am completely shocked by the ads for erectile dysfunction. Don’t we want to see the things that we really are interested in instead of the noise and clutter? What could possibly enable this? The better use of the 3rd party data we leave behind. Isn’t time to get rid of the YAHOO! and AOL email accounts that exist to just collect our spam?
Convenience vs. Creepiness
Imagine for a moment that a few days after car shopping you have a nice follow up offer from the dealer in your mailbox. What if other competitors were alerted that you were actively interested in a new car and sent along some other choices to consider? The only difference here is that your visit, rather than your click, triggered the offers. For many this is a convenient way for the market to know you are ready and for you to know what the market has to offer. Should you no longer be in the market or want to opt out, it is very easy to do. Either creepiness or convenience are free and are placed in our control.
David vs. Goliath
Fewer may not be better, but it will be a reality. When cell carriers decided to charge the same for local and long distance calls the 100B/year long distance business dominated by ATT (the original, not the guys that bought the name) MCI, and Sprint (they existed as a local and long- distance carrier before wireless) ceased to exist. Ad agency’s budgets and staffs will shrink as it pertains to media; target audiences will get smaller; the number of ads will get smaller, and the players that deliver them will continue to be those that master making media smaller and more personal on a mass 1:1 basis. It can happen to you. And yes, use of this data makes your clients media budgets smaller. The biggest brands in the largest spending categories use data to take marketing functions in-house and the largest management consulting firms have become the leaders in digital marketing services.
Small Data vs. Big Data
Why go big when everything you need is available in smaller media packages? Why pester people that don’t care about what you are offering? Why extrapolate when you can actually pick the right targets? Small scales! What drives this? Data! If we get the gift of free and financed content, apps, services, and connectivity, and have the option to opt out whenever we want, the impact of small and targeted could be beneficial, rather than overwhelmed and misguided. Not all use of data is bad—after all, it’s the deal we’ve already made.