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Quick Summary: Read about how marketers in India are under-utilizing the power of digital media by relying on interruption marketing rather than permission marketing.
In the last few weeks, I have had some interesting debates with friends who work in the digital media space (online/ mobile/ DTH). While the specifics of the discussions have varied, the underlying theme has been the same.
My friend X wants me to include online/ mobile/ DTH in my regular media plan. X makes a pretty 100 page presentation to me on the different types of ads I can show on online/ mobile/ DTH. X points out that online/ mobile/ DTH is more measurable than TV/ press/ radio/ outdoors on which I spend a few crores without even thinking about it. X then very tentatively presents the budget slide and suggests that since I’m anyway spending a few crores on TV/ press/ radio/ outdoors, I shouldn’t hesitate in spending a few lakhs on online/ mobile/ DTH. At this point, I totally shock X by telling her that my budget for online/ mobile/ DTH is unlimited, but I’m not interested in doing any of the activities she has suggested to me.
I’m not a big fan of traditional media, because it is based on the “spray and pray” or “interruption” model of marketing. You basically spend as much as you can and hope that you’ll cut through the clutter of a million other brands doing exactly the same, interrupt your customer in the middle of whatever she is doing and tempt her to whip out her cheque-book and walk into your showroom. You don’t know how well it has worked, you don’t even know whether it has worked at all, but you still do it month after month because you know no better.
Digital media works best when you abandon the “interruption” model of marketing and move to a “permission” model of marketing. In the “permission” model of marketing, you still interrupt the customer, but you do not ask her to buy your product. Instead, you ask her to give you permission to engage with her, then escalate the level of the engagement over time, so that she eventually wants to buy your product herself. Permission marketing is not about trying to reach a million customers at one time, it’s about engaging with a million customers one at a time. Digital media is not about trying to reach a million customers at one time, it’s about engaging with a million customers one at a time.
So, I’m not interested in knowing whether the total number of internet users in India is 15 million or 50 million. I’m not interested in knowing whether the number of impressions on site A is one-tenth more than the number of impressions on site B. I’m not even interested in knowing whether the CTR (click-through ratio) of one particular type of banner ad is 0.05% higher than the CTRs of the other one thousand and one types of banners.
I’m interested in knowing if digital media allows me to engage with my customers in a fundamentally different manner than traditional media. I’m interested in knowing if it allows me to do it at a significantly lower cost than traditional media. Most importantly, I’m interested in knowing if it allows me to measure both the nature of the engagement and the cost of enabling it with significantly higher precision that traditional media.
But let’s go back to my friend X who works in the digital media space. I want to tell X that my budget for online/ mobile/ DTH is indeed unlimited, as long as it pays for itself. I also want to tell X that I’m not interested in doing any of the activities she has suggested to me because all of them are based on the “interruption” model of marketing and using digital media for “interruption” marketing would only prove that it doesn’t work, whereas I want to prove that it does work.
And, finally, in response to X’s parting repartee on how marketers expect too much from digital media and too little from traditional media, I want to tell her that only marketers who expect too much from digital media would help establish proof of concept for digital media, and, yes, I agree, it is an unfair world.
But, enough about what marketers should not do on digital media. Coming up next, some ideas on what marketers should do on digital media.
Comments (8)
Permission marketing need a lot of patience and care. I rarely see marketers having that, especially in India.
Looking fwd to ideas on the metrics for permission mktg. in India
I love Seth Godin. And i was directed here by Melody. And so far you have an interesting blog (interests being Marketing, Blogging and Personal Development :D)
Interesting.
From views to engagement to purchase is a journey that marketers in India have so far been able to avoid given that the primary vehicles of media consumption are still print/ television.
Brands that do indeed see the opportunity to begin early and ‘engage’ over ‘views’ would be rewarded, but the approach is different and very few brand managers even understand this - like someone said the other day “No one loses her/ his job because of it yet, so it doesn’t matter.”
R
@Rajesh: Totally true.
What makes it even worse is that the people who are supposed to understand it — digital content owners, digital marketers and digital agencies — are still stuck in the reach/ frequency paradigm, probably because the numbers (in terms of billings/ commission) simply do not add up for targeted, engagement-centric campaigns.
Every time I try to do a targeted engagement-centric online/ mobile campaign, I first have to say “no” to an avalanche of “but what about reach?” silliness.
This happens so often that, sometimes, I end up wondering if I’m totally deluded in thinking that digital media must be about more than reach/ frequency.
Not alleging anything but engagement is hard-work and not the easy 15% or whatever % commission on YOUR spend. You spend I earn. Why change that model?
That’s where fundamentally I like public relations over advertising/ offshoots thereof.
Cheers.
Rajesh
@Rajesh: I’m not yet asking myself the “advertising or public relations?” question, but I am searching for a less intrusive, more people-centric model of marketing.
I think there’s a bigger issue at hand here. Your friend X seems to be presenting an advertising budget, rather than a marketing plan. While this has more to do with her role in the machine, it also blinds her to non-commercial engagement or branding opportunity. A common tendency is to dismiss these opportunities as PR initiatives, and focus on what makes money for the agency.
The concept of 360-degree marketing hasn’t covered the internet as a medium in India, and for most brands, it’s purely because of reach (engagement is all about mindspace, and currently, TV gets you more of it than any other medium available). The critical mass that is necessary in order to do online brand-engagement exercises simply does not exist yet. So when HUL wants to spend money on brand-building, they’ll do roadshows in Indore rather than build and promote a skincare website. This will change, but not today or tomorrow.
@Sumant: I’m sure you have a first-hand insider’s perspective on the issue because of your work-experience.
Yes, I agree with you, Indian marketers and agencies keep doing wrong things on the internet, because the numbers don’t yet add up for the right things.
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