As I was sitting there in my camping chair reading my favourite book at a sleepy little caravan park on the New South Wales coast over the summer break, something occurred to me. The advertising world is so digitally and data led nowadays, will the art of media buying and planning ever be the same?
As sad is it is, the answer is no. No it won’t. But there are fundamentals that should always be followed no matter what the brief or the platform. After all, we are still the same humans we were before digital and social media, and we still have the same tendencies and triggers that make us engage and purchase – for the most part.
Yes. GenY and Millennials will most likely have a different set of purchase behaviours to that of Gen X, who will again be different to Baby Boomers, but they all share fundamental characteristics. They all have emotions, feelings, needs and wants and we as marketers must always tap into these characteristics.
When planning in an on-line centric world, planners and buyers can often forget about things like how a consumer is feeling at a certain time, where they are consuming their media and how they’re consuming their media.
How is the consumer feeling at a particular moment, when they see a clients advertising, especially when you are asking the consumer to take action. Time targeting and the usage of certain media at a particular time of the day is crucial to campaign success.
Even weather can make a big difference to the outcome of on-line campaigns. We have seen in many instances of lead generation campaigns, a slower up take in on-line enquiry in the summer months for instance. Purely because of consumer behaviour.
When the days are longer, we want to enjoy the sunshine more – especially after work. We tend to be more inclined to enjoy the outdoors or night life. We might not want to go straight home after work for instance to look on-line for things or do research. Instead, we go to the beach, or the park, or go for a ride, a walk – or even spend more time in the gym. You get the picture. This means fewer people are on-line. So this is when you change the media mix to be more about time targeted radio – podcasts or hitting them are certain times of day when the consumer is more engaged.
An impression at seven pm in the evening, is not the same as an impression at 1am but it will cost the same. It’s as simple as that. And the same can be said for a click. A radio ad at nine am is not the same as it is at 11pm. And whilst in the case of radio, the costs do change somewhat, are those ads even effective. The list goes on. These small fundamental things must continually be taken into account.
We must always take into account FEEL, not just data, and consider what state of mind the consumer is in when we are talking to them. Are they busy, are they relaxed (are they asleep!) Are they in their car, are they at home, are they travelling. There are so many things to consider, when planning media – not just data. Real world ideation is paramount.
Another very important consideration is the “role” of media. What are we wanting this particular media platform to achieve and what is the measure of success of when it will be so. It is important to choose media for its purpose, not just for website traffic or because the data says our target audience are heavy users of a particular medium. What role does this media platform play in helping achieve an outcome for a particular campaign or product.
If the role of video is “awareness” what is the ‘type’ of awareness you are trying to achieve. It might be educational, it might be to create urgency for a sale. It might even be re-targeting with a different message to the one they hit your website with.
Awareness can these days be a dirty word in marketing. But unfortunately for a lot of brands, it is invariably difficult to track and monitor and understand the effectiveness of awareness plays and so for this reason, it is important to ensure you choose the medium for the task and ensure that planning accounts for both feel and task and that the messaging compliments media placement.