How To Sell New Media To Old Media Stalwarts

Old Dogs

TV flights.  Print schedules.  Outdoor rotations.  Radio spots.  These tactics presuppose an audience’s interest in your brand message, just as they presuppose a measure of proximity is indicative of ability to influence.  They’re expensive, too:  to concept, create, produce, plan, distribute, in addition to the obvious and variable cost of media run.  Factor in all of the filters available today (TiVo, RSS feeds, iGoogle and Google Reader, satellite radio) and you can echo the sentiment “I know half of my advertising works; trouble is, I don’t know which half.” And there’s a chance that half might be generous!

Will He Hunt?

Is there a place for old (traditional) media in today’s leaner marketing and advertising budgets?  Absolutely.  Channels that expose general mass audiences to a brand can ensure awareness and deliver reinforcement for perceptions.  With a well-crafted [old] media plan, a brand can expose potentially large groups of consumers to your brand and products, executed with a fiscal prudency designed to stay in front of, rather than line-of-site, with your targets. 

So the questions become, “If general mass media has its value, how can I determine what that collective value is, in both downstream and mindshare measurements?” as well as “Are there other effective channels that can reach and influence my targets in more meaningful and measureable ways?”

The important thing to consider is, given your short and long range goals, budget, target profiles, timetable, and strategy, is it the perfect time to change your tactics and media mix, and maybe assume an alpha position in your market?

New Tricks

We’re in competitive marketplaces, all of us.  It’s crucial as a marketer or strategist to prove your own metle, and one way to ensure that is through clearly defining goals and establishing metrics.  The next step is to intelligently interlock tactical components to improve the opportunity for exposure/impressions to evolve to trial/purchase (and dare I suggest repeat purchase/affinity?).

One way our company is attempting to shift traditionalist thinking (we are, after all, in the business of healthcare–hospitals) includes a localized comparison between, say, one-month outdoor and a single 1/4 page b/w newsprint buy as compared to a month AdWord campaign with a $3,000 media budget.  Without even discussing the pre-posting/insertion costs or our relatively negligible pre-campaign mangagement costs, we cleanly and effectively demonstrate that as a component in an overall media campaign, online and search engine marketing can:

• Efficiently isolate channels or points of entry through use of analytics
• Reach targeted audiences predisposed to our topic
• Present our brand and service in a consultatory manner consistent with our Promise
• Ensure greater numbers of impressions
• Incite interested persons to interact with the brand (through a click, potentially deeper clicks)
• Expose the target to quality and relevant content that’s timely (stellar landing pages, folks)
• Present mechanisms for CRM and lead development (that’d be a form to request more information, a secondary page with unique toll-free number, a “send to friend” function, etc.)

At The End Of The Day

It’s about balance, thoughtful and careful strategy, articulated goals, willingness to test and trial, and a quest for empirical data that can demonstrate a solid and defensable position.

Should be pretty easy.