Posted on

Media & Marketing 3.0

Over the past several years I have reflected frequently on where we are in the evolution of media and marketing — with one (1) goal in mind:  what is the best way to market and promote a product or service RIGHT NOW.  What is the How/What/Where/Who?  To answer this question effectively it is helpful to review where we have been over the past 90 years.  There have been three main phases:
  1. Media & Marketing 1.0:  1920-1955 (Pre-Television Era)
  2. Media & Marketing 2.0:  1955-2009 (Post-Television Era)
  3. Media & Marketing 3.0:  2009 onward (Post-Digital Era)

In today’s world — the Post Digital Era — traditional mass media are in decline.  Just look at the numbers for newspaper, television and radio advertising.  New media (web, email, social and mobile) are of course on the rise.  Look no further than what major brand marketers and consumers are doing:

  • In 1999 mainstream media (TV, Print, Radio) captured 98% of all Ford Motor Co’s advertising dollars in North America.  Today it captures less than 70%. (source: Ad Age 2009)
  • Today internet advertising is greater than all broadcast radio ad spending (6% for Radio, 8% Internet) (source: NAB & IAB)
  • In 1985 there were 2 out-of-home audio choices (terrestrial radio, the Walkman).  Today there are at least 5 choices (satellite radio, mp3 players, Internet radio, terrestrial radio,  iPhones).

Bottom line: consumers are consuming media in many more ways than they were 10-15 years ago — thanks to the Internet.  And within digital media there are dozens of choices for advertisers to make when they decide on how to push out their message.  Below are just a few…12 to be exact:

web banners
 email
 paid search
behavioral targeting
 widgets
 social media
SEO (organic)
 video
 mobile media
iPhone apps
 iPad apps
 Internet radio

This list is not all encompassing either.  There are more areas within digital.  The point ultimately is not to get overwhelmed by the plethora of choices but to embrace them…and to find the sweet spot that is Marketing 3.0.  The diagram up top is a rough illustration of this.  Somewhere between Traditional Media, Internet and Mobile/Guerilla, is the right mix for any marketing campaign.  It is a more complicated world now; so the degree to which marketers become skilled “media mixologists” is more important than ever.

Embrace the choices,  embrace the mosaic of ways to get the message out.  You will be surprised and delighted when your mix hits just the right note.

Posted on

The New Paradigm

Over the past 5 years we have moved into a new age for media and marketing.  The Internet has surpassed various traditional media in reach and influence.  Media has fragmented.  And the ‘work’ of marketing has gotten more complex,  more comprehensive, more all inclusive.  No longer is traditional marketing and planning sufficient.  (Perhaps it is for some of the Fortune 500.  But all others take note.)  If you expect to market a product or service successfully,  you must leverage the “mosaic” of tools that exist:  web, email, behavioral targeting, social media, street marketing — and traditional media.  This is clear to most good marketers today.  But it is the COMBO of tactics — the mix,  the ‘secret sauce’ — that makes a campaign in this environment successful.

So the posts shared on this blog will aim to take stock, take note and provide analysis on this new paradigm that I call Marketing 2.0.

New brands will emerge.  Existing brands will roll up out new campaigns and products.  Some will do so exclusively via digital means,  some exclusively via traditional marketing.  (Here’s a link to an interesting case study of digital-only marketing success.)  But the most interesting work will take place in the intersection of old and new tactics.  Where the secret sauce separates winners from losers.  Where execution and strategy come together.

EPC Cigar - digital only strategy