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.
- X – X – X -
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.
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Gaurav Mishra 6:43 am on March 17, 2008 Permalink |
So what`s the tipping point in timeline you are seeing from now ? One year , two year ?
And if i say Technology part in Social networking Industry is at saturation , Will it be wrong ?
If not, How do you see technology helping in Social media marketing ?
Blr Bytes 9:45 am on March 17, 2008 Permalink |
I doubt it will flip the model but there will be greater benefits from interactions with social media.
Particularly fond of the notion of free:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/02/may-i-have-your.html
Gaurav 3:28 pm on March 17, 2008 Permalink |
@Gaurav: I think the tipping point is 2 years away internationally and 5 years away in India.
@BB: I think the trend will tip. For instance, I’m already impossible to reach via traditional media. I’m sure there are others like me.
The “economics of free”, by the way, is an altogether different post.
Rajesh 11:41 pm on March 17, 2008 Permalink |
It’s about the tools gaining critical mass and maturity. Some (in fact, many) need to drop out on the way to clean up the clutter before we can see effective usage. Right now, it’s all fragmented (even with the tiny traffic we have, therefore fragmenting it some more).
Cheers.
R
Gaurav 12:10 am on March 18, 2008 Permalink |
@Rajesh: I’m setting a really high bar for the tipping point –
- When interrupting people with advertising becomes costlier than engaging with them via social media (in terms of time + money + goodwill).
- When the automatic inclusion of social media in the marketing mix becomes ubiquitous.
- When brand managers are fired for not having a social media strategy.
Work from Home Guru 12:41 am on March 19, 2008 Permalink |
For me Social Media has proved to be a tremendous benefit to my home business. It allows a cost effective way to reach millions of people, what more could you ask for. I figure that one day it will be the only approach marketers use to target customers, as many of the social media sites continue to grow by leaps and bounds.