In today’s media world we are fortunate enough to be able to target our buys in a myriad of ways; geo-target, demo-target, site-target, behavioral target…you get the idea. Targeting is an attractive and effective marketing strategy. It can provide more qualified leads and offer increased share of voice within respective markets and industries. The trouble is it’s easy to be wooed by the appeal of reaching our targets with such precision that our focus moves solely to targeted delivery methods and we forget about the importance of incorporating a layer of broad-reach exposure into our campaigns (save Stackpole & Partners, of course).
There is substantial (perhaps hidden at the moment) value behind incorporating broad-reach exposure into an over-arching targeted media strategy. For example, if we take a step back and dial into the fact that we are all consumers (and in most cases have friends, family and colleagues who are consumers as well) and recognize or remember the immense value associated with a referral that comes direct from a friend, relative, or colleague who is passing along an ad, article or listing that relates to our work, passions and life pursuits we arrive at a ground breaking new concept – Word of Mouth marketing. Ah yes, a genius marketing tactic… hmm, that media/marketing vendors are now actually writing into their capabilities and service offerings as the latest and greatest method of message delivery?! Wait a second; if we need to pay for (or even negotiate as added value) Word of Mouth marketing then maybe we aren’t purchasing media in the most effective manner, creating brilliant, inspiring ads or delivering on our brand promise. But I digress. My point is, perhaps we’re guilty of dancing on the edge of uber-targeting our media campaigns. Which is why an elementary concept such as Word of Mouth is the latest rage. (All of this is not to say conclusively that finitely targeted media buys won’t yield Word of Mouth marketing, but it is to say that the universe and possibility shrink – and my question is, for what purpose? Let’s make sure our targeting methods are meaningful, not blinding.) So, before we all go jazz-hands over the concept of Word of Mouth we should proceed with caution when planning, recall the importance of Word of Mouth and understand that while targeting is nice, broad-reach coupled with a targeted approach inherently delivers on Word of Mouth (provided that creative and brand promise are fulfilling their roles).
Not to mention, if we add some slack into our targeted media approaches we may even find ourselves answering the following question less, “Dude where’s my ad?”
Posted by Marrianne on June 15th, 2007
Filed under Marketing, Media | No Comments »