Maybe what you think is happening…isn’t happening

In this video, I look at the media people think works the best, compared with analysis of what does work the best.

Some key takeaways.

1 All advertising media work. They all work. They work differently, but it’s always going to be the message that’s the fuel you put in there that’s going to make the medium work better.

2 You aren’t the customer. You’ve got to remember that because just because it’s true for you doesn’t mean that it’s true for all. Just because your circle of people are very like you and act in a certain way, that doesn’t mean the bulk of people act that way.

3 Strategy first, the strategy has to come first and you then choose the media based on what you’re trying to accomplish.

I’ve put links to these studies down below so you can click on them, read them yourself, and encourage you to do that. I hope this is useful and hope it gives you something to think about.

Links to studies referenced;

Ebiquity study:

Re-evaluating Media

Westwood One/Edison Research:

Share of Ear Q3 2018: Advertiser Misconceptions

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

Why having an industry measurement currency matters for advertisers

 

Video Transcript

[00:02] You know, you’ve heard it said that perception is reality and nowhere is that more true than in our relationship with media, both as marketers and as just people walking around. And that can become dangerous if you get caught in this trap of “everyone I know listens to podcasts, no one listens to that,” or “everyone I know watches tv time shifted.” No one watches it live, uh, from, from the UK called Ebiquity did a very interesting study recently, actually a set of studies. The first one was they looked at a bunch of research on how different media performed for advertisers and they looked at 12 different categories of where the media should perform well and where it might be a little bit weak and they really put it through the rigors to make sure that the data was accurate, that it was reliable, it was statistically solid.

[00:56] Then while they were doing that, they were doing a concurrent study where they were talking to media people, advertisers and marketing people, uh, about what they thought were the strongest media in different categories. And the results are pretty interesting. For example, when they asked advertisers and agencies, which media do you think performs the best when we’re talking about targeting now, They said direct mail, social media, and then TV and online video were tied for third. That feels pretty right. Uh, but when they looked at the data and they looked at the evidence of what actually did perform well as far as reaching the right people at the right time, radio came in number one. Now the perception was that radio was at the bottom, so there’s a discrepancy there between what the advertisers and marketers thought was going to be the most effective and what ended up being the most effective social media and TV came in second place followed by online display and cinema.

[01:57] Maximizing campaign reach, I want to try to get to as many people as possible and they said tv out of home, billboards, bus signs, those kinds of things. And then radio, social media and online display tied for third. They got the first three right…they got in the wrong order, out of home, TV and radio being the ones that have the most reach, that’s actually accurate, but again, you see a discrepancy between where they thought things like online video or online display, were going to perform well, but they ended up at the, at the bottom of the list. Lowest cost. How do I, how do I reach people for the lowest cost per person? This one was particularly interesting because marketers and advertisers said, well, it’s social media. I mean all I gotta do is put 40 bucks in facebook and I’m marketing to facebook.

[02:47] How could it be any cheaper online video and online display? All three of those tied for first, but when they looked at the evidence again, radio came in, number one, followed by billboards and newspapers. Again, very interesting result there and were online. Video ranked was actually in number eight where the marketers thought it was going to be number one. Now look, none of this is to say that one is better than the other. This is simply to look at where each media is strong and where each media is weak on different attributes of what you’re trying to do in a marketing campaign. They then took all 12 of those attributes ranging from targeting the right people to increasing ROI to triggering an emotional response. They put them all together and they said, okay, considering all of those factors, which one’s the strongest? tv came in first, online video and social media came in second and third, but again, when they ran the data tv, radio, newspapers, magazines, all came in at the top.

[03:51] That might challenge some of your perceptions that newspapers dead. It’s not a. and it certainly isn’t a true that TV and radio are dead, but it was when they looked at the data, that’s where it happened to rank TV and radio there at number one. But again, online video they thought was going to score it. Number two, it ended up scoring at number nine. Edison research did a similar study here in the US where they looked at your audio listening habits and they said, when you’re listening to some kind of audio, what are you usually listening to? Advertisers and agencies said, well, about 36 percent of the time people are probably listening to broadcast radio, but boy, I’ve got my Pandora on and I’ve got my Spotify on a 20 percent of the time, 23 percent of the time. Again, when they ran the data to see what was really happening, a pretty stark difference.

[04:43] Almost 50 percent of the time you were listening to broadcast radio. Only four percent of the time are you listening to Pandora… And only two percent of the time are you listening to spotify. How can that be? All my friends listened to spotify. And that may be true, but it’s not true. When you look at the big middle and this is where all the people are, uh, yes, there’s always going to be early adopters who are doing that. And this is not to say it’s not going to change and in a couple of years, but when you look at the bulk, when you look at the middle, this is where the people, this is where the people reside. IAB in Australia did a, again, a very similar study that asked the question, when you’re watching video, where are you watching video? You’re watching on TV or you’re watching on a tablet, are you watching it time shifted?

[05:27] In the US, the UK and Australia, most of the Western world, what they found was anywhere from 70 to 80 percent of the time when you’re watching video, you’re watching it live on a television. The number of people who are watching things time shifted on their DVR, a ranges anywhere from eight to 13 percent depending on the country, and then your digital screens, a desktop smartphone and tablet, a makeup that smaller portion there at the top. This is recent data within the last year and the purpose of this is not to say, hey, this media is great, this one is terrible. The purpose of this is to say use the right tool for the right job to do, to have a conversation about which one is better and which one is worse, is like having a conversation of, you know, is a hammer better than a socket wrench?

[06:18] Well, the answer is maybe I, you know, what is it you’re trying to do? And so if somebody ever says, hey, where should I advertise? The answer isn’t go on radio, go on billboards, go on the Internet. The answer is what is it you’re trying to do? And you have to really look at it from that way because not all campaigns are built the same and not all companies need the same thing.

So some key takeaways. Number one, all advertising media work, they all work, they work differently, but it’s always going to be the message that the fuel you put in there that’s going to make the, the, the medium work better. And number two, you aren’t the customer. You’ve got to remember that because just because it’s true for you doesn’t mean that it’s true for all. Just because your circle of people were very like you, act in a certain way doesn’t mean the bulk of people act that way. And finally, strategy first, the strategy has to come first in choose the media based on what you’re trying to accomplish. I’ve put links to these studies down below so you can click on them, read them yourself, and encourage you to do that. I hope this is useful and hope it gives you something to think about.

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