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Opportunity for Mass Customization
JIM LENSKOLD, AMA Member
President, Lenskold Group
Author, "Marketing ROI: The Path to Campaign, Customer and Corporate Profitablility"
This progression from broadcast TV and newspapers into smaller communities, still with dynamics of a mass medium, is a huge opportunity for advertisers who are ready to adapt accordingly. Many marketing organizations still manage decisions based on impressions and look for big numbers to justify their spending. But marketing executives that are managing ROI and concentrating on sales impact typically know that the biggest improvements in ROI come from targeting. Reaching fewer contacts that are more likely to convert to sales and become valuable customers will generate better returns. And that is what should result from this trend to smaller communities with common interests.
The challenge for marketers is to take the strength of mass media channels (video in particular), and migrate from a generic message for all potential buyers to one that speaks to the unique needs of each communities. Analytics and research are necessary to define and prioritize target segments. Strategies must be attentive to how potential buyers use and engage with the new media. And measurements must be established from the start to effectively capture the influence on buying behaviors.
Chaos Scenario: New Bob Garfield Video
In The Chaos Scenario, Bob Garfield, ad critic and essayist for Advertising Age magazine and co-host of NPR’s award-winning On the Media program, forecasts the disintegration of the traditional mass media and mass advertising structures that have worked in perfect symbiosis for 400 years and prescribes “Listenomics” as the way for brands to thrive in the digital, post-advertising age. He warns that all formerly top-down institutions cannot dictate to consumers with advertising through mass media as before, but must instead embrace digital tools to forge relationships with them—no longer seeing people as piggy banks, or eyeballs or votes, but as genuine stakeholders in their enterprise. Amid the ruins of mass media, the choice for business is stark: listen or perish. View the Video.