I’ve been spending a lot of time writing a personal story about growing up in the 1980’s and I can’t help but miss the simplicity of life back then. On TV there were three main networks, ABC, NBC, CBS and a few independents so our choices for prime time viewing were limited to shows like the Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Dallas and Miami Vice. There were more radio stations to choose from but, still again, our choice of formats was limited to maybe one radio station for rock, and one for alternative, etc. I almost didn’t move to San Diego because of my love affair with KROQ-FM in LA. I was relieved to at times be able to reach the signal at north county San Diego beaches but the longer I stayed in San Diego, the more I started getting immersed into the culture there. The alternative rock choice I picked up was 91x which at the time I thought was a sad copy of KROQ.
It’s interesting that now that we have streaming all over the world, if I wanted to I could listen to KROQ all day, but I don’t. And, I think that’s my, “Where’s the Beef?”. OK, so that pun was intended.
Nowadays, we have so many media choices but so few good ones. Currently almost anyone can pick up a video camera, put together a website, and make a movie. As consumers, we’re often forced to clear through the clutter to find content worth watching or listening to. Even the professionals working in the content producing industries have so much pressure to put together new content for all their networks, they often just keep repeating the same show if one should actually get any traction.
How many of you, like me, have to go through 100 emails before you start your workday, check or post updates on Facebook and Linkedin, in addition to the phone calls that need to be returned? How much productivity actually got done during that time?
I was watching a video recently on the 4AAAA’s website about the challenges in the advertising industry in the past 20 years, and it stated that the advertising industry’s growth has only been at 1% a year even though the workload has increased by 60%. Something’s got to give, and this is what I think is going to start happening.
I’ve seen a tremendous growth spurt in online options since 2008. At that time I realized I needed to keep up with the trends so I immersed myself in email marketing, blogging, banner ads, video ads and making sure I was signed up for all the popular online networking sites. These activities have consumed a large part of my working day, but the return on the effort has been minimal. I believe as more people, both consumers and business men, realize the time and effort involved with these activities, they will start choosing to be a part of only a few quality sites that they’ve become involved in. Facebook, Youtube and Linkedin are good examples of this.
With so many TV and Cable channels, only the quality shows, regardless of the network producing them, will stay the course and get the advertising dollars.
A more balanced approach to media dollar allocations will take place. Even though we’ve had a huge shift in online activity these past few years it still accounts for only about 20-30% of a marketer’s advertising budget.
A shift in consumer attitudes about their free time will take place. Yes, they have limitless content options, but no they don’t have limitless time. Consumers will start putting up boundaries on their time spent with these activities.
An interesting fact came out of the last Summer Olympic Nielsen ratings. It showed viewership numbers were almost at the same levels as in the 1970’s. I believe this is just the beginning of a trend toward consumers getting back to spending quality time together with quality programming.
A good email list is a gold mine for marketers, but again quality content or a good offer is important or else consumers will start hitting the delete button without even reading what’s inside.
I teach blogging classes and manage three of my own blogs. I think they’re great ways to gain recognition as being an expert in the field you’re blogging about, may help increase your page rank if you make updates frequently, and are inexpensive to set up and manage if you do the work yourself, but they should be only a small part of your marketing efforts.
Video ad dollars should be allocated to your production budget, and to get the best traction for them, they should be strategically placed in the media so you actually get people to watch them.
Banner ads are a good way to promote awareness of a brand but haven’t proven to be very effective in increasing sales.
People who have unique ideas for quality content will be in demand. Robots can’t come up with out-of-the box thinking.
Overall, I believe as consumers, we’ll start making choices to combat some of the information overload. We just may see a trend back toward a balanced approach to life. Oh, what a relief to our overburdened lives that will be.
