Wednesday, November 26, 2014

When should you not advertise?

Is there ever a time where an advertising agency may suggest to an advertiser to go dark and not run a campaign? Depending who you talk to, the answer may be an emphatic “no” or a conditional “yes.”

In my opinion, it depends on the client. An argument could be made that non-retailer advertisers may steer clear of advertising during heavy retail holiday times like Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Black Friday. These and other dates have national advertisers who have access to big budgets to have high frequency and high impact campaigns, which is great. However, for non-retail, local advertisers who have a smaller budget, your message may get lost in the shuffle.

Another situation in which an advertiser may lighten up a campaign is customer behavior. An example may be a retirement facility that doesn’t heavily advertise in May because families are focused on graduations and finishing up the school year. However, that same facility may heavy-up schedules in January when families realize that relatives may need to start looking for living alternatives.


Overall, advertising your product or service is a 24/7, year-round job. However, there are times where a schedule may be pulled back strategically in order to use a budget wisely. It really comes down to knowing your audience and understanding your advertising environment.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Quick cheat sheet of digital media buzz words

There are a lot of new buzz words floating around the digital media landscape. Half the time I know what people are saying, “optimize”, and other times, not so much, “sticky.” Below is a little lingo tutorial to help decode what digital people are saying.

KPI:  Key Performance Indicator is a type of performance measurement. It evaluates the success of a particular activity in which it engages.

Native Advertising: Much like a print advertorial, this is an ad that is made to look like a part of the website. It may be a sponsor of a popular section of a website or an actual editorial piece on a designated page. These ads will be marked as advertising.

Optimization: This is a fancy way of saying that changes were made to a campaign to make it better. For example, changing up keywords, demographics, geographic targets, and/or creative.

Programmatic Advertising: This is a software program that is used to purchase digital advertising rather than working with vendors.

Stickiness: This is the amount of time spent on a website over a certain amount of time.

These are just a few of the many digital terms in use today. In general, buzz words tend to fall into the categories of Return on Investment measurement (success), the process in which ads are served (ad format), the method in which ads are purchased (vendors), and the manner in which ads are maintained (back-end reporting and managing).


If in doubt, use the word “optimize” as it tends to work in a lot of digital advertising conversations.

Friday, November 14, 2014

What consumers think of email marketing

One highly targetable method for advertisers to reach consumers is email marketing. The question, however, is how do consumers feel about receiving email blasts?

The Center for Media Research reported on a new research study titled, “Take Advantage of Positive Email Attitudes,” by Forrester Research. MarketingCharts helped to summarize the findings. Approximately 33,500 online users were polled.

Here are some highlights:
·        42% deleted most email advertising prior to reading (This was down from 59% in 2010 and 44% in 2012.)
·        39% felt that he/she received too many email promotions and offers
·        37% sought to unsubscribe from unsolicited email lists
·        29% wanted to know how advertisers got ahold of the email addresses
·        24% reported that email advertising was a good way to be informed of new products and promotions


What advertisers should take away from this study is to make your product as relevant as possible to your consumer. Buying a list of unsolicited addresses may not help perceptions and too many emails per week may tire your audience.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Youth tablet and mobile phone usage

Generally speaking, there are many devices that a consumer can utilize to access media. In the digital realm, there tends to be three major players: mobile phone, desktop/laptop computer, and tablet. New research dissects the user age demographics of mobile phones and tablets.

In the study, “The Mobile Device Path to Purchase: Parents & Children,” conducted by Communicus, there was a breakdown on media usage between the age groups preschoolers 2-5, kids 6-9, tweens 10-12, and teenagers 13-17. eMarketer reports the general findings:

Preschoolers 2-5:
·        37% of those surveyed use a mobile phone
·        71% use a tablet

Kids 6-9:
·        47% of those surveyed use a mobile phone
·        83% use a tablet

Tweens 10-12:
·        71% of those surveyed use a mobile phone
·        80% use a tablet

Teenagers 13-17:
·        94% of those surveyed use a mobile phone
·        65% use a tablet


Important to note is the shift between mobile phone and tablet usage and age. As kids grow into teenagers, tablet usage decreases while mobile phone increases. Kids between the ages of 6 and 9 tend to use the tablet the most.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Americans think certain topics get too much news coverage

The definition of news coverage varies depending on who you are asking. According to a new survey conducted by Harris Poll, some Americans think certain topics of news have been over exposed while others are lacking.

MediaPost reports that those polled felt that news had too much emphasis on entertainment, professional spectator sports, politics and superficial and sensational stories. In fact, about 76% stated celebrity gossip and scandals took up too much coverage in news reports.

In the same poll, people thought humanitarian issues, education, science, government corruption, health, global humanitarian issues, etc. received too little attention in the news.


Interesting to note is that Harris found that the audience had similar degrees of agreement to news coverage when looking at age generations. Meaning, people within the same age generation had similar attitudes towards certain news coverage. An example being that about 88% of older generations reported that celebrity gossip had too much coverage, 79% of baby boomers were in agreement, followed by 76% of Gen Xers, and 68% of millennials.