With all the buzz about digital, mobile, search and social media you’d think there’s just no need anymore for traditional advertising like print, outdoor, direct, email, radio and TV. You’d be wrong.
Remember this. Digital agencies and media companies, like any other businesses, recommend and sell what they’re most comfortable and profitable doing – not what’s best for you. Digital shops tend to find the only solutions are digital ones. Traditional shops have a bias towards traditional solutions. The reality is the vast majority of all companies need a marketing plan that includes both digital and traditional.
And while there’s been an explosion of growth in digital and therefore digital agencies, take the hype with a huge grain of salt. In a seminal study by world-renowned research firm, Ebiquity, researchers found that marketers have an irrational bias towards digital media. Even when the evidence couldn’t be clearer that some traditional channels and tactics are much more effective, most ad agency folks are in denial. Read the Ebiquity study here.
“The biggest and most productive way to spark conversation is not through online social media but paid advertising. 25% of conversations about brands include an explicit reference to ads in traditional media. TV is far and away the single biggest driver of conversations.”
- May 14, 2012, Wall Street Journal, “Why Successful Branding Still Happens Offline”
The facts below speak for themselves:
Just .34% of all online Black Friday sales were generated by social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube - a decrease of more than 35% since 2011, IBM
In any given week, less than 0.5% of Facebook fans engage with the brand they are fans of, Ehrenberg Bass Institute for Marketing Science
Only 0.3% of followers on Twitter interact with brand posts, Forrester
77% of consumers admit they have no relationship with a brand whatsoever, Corporate Executive Board
Over 90% of WOM happens offline, Keller & Fay
People spend over 4 times as much time watching live TV as they do on the web with a computer. Nielsen: Total Audience Report, December 2014
Minutes per day the average person consumes media: 275 watching live TV, 170 listening to AM/FM Radio, 95 on Smartphone, 60 on online computer, and 40 on DVR, Nielsen: Total Audience Report, December 2014
How people consume video- DVR 8.7%, Web 3.7%, Phone .5%, Traditional TV 87%, Nielsen: Total Audience Report, December 2014
How people consume video TV vs. Web device: On a web device 4%, on a TV 96%, Nielsen: Total Audience Report, December 2014
People spend more time listening to the radio than they do with their cell phone and connected computer combined. Listening to the AM/FM Radio- 740 minutes per week and Internet on Computer + Phone- 720 minutes per week, Nielsen: Total Audience Report, December 2014
56% of display ads paid for by advertisers are never seen by a live human, Google
57% of online video ads are never seen, The New York Times
Only 38% of all traffic on the web is human, CNET reported on a study by research firm Incapsula
Click through rates for banner ads are around .02 to .03% (which is 2 or 3 clicks per 10,000 impressions), The Ad Contrarian
Only 17% of the population is responsible for 96% of all online video viewing, Media Life interview with Pivotal Research Group’s Brian Wieser
94% of retail activity still happens in brick-and-mortar stores, US Department of Commerce
The best agencies are solution agnostic and only recommend ideas, media and tactics after careful analysis of your customer wants and needs, your competitors and your goals. Sometimes the most efficient and effective solution is packaging, product design or something completely unexpected. Great agency partners are always looking for the best marketing opportunities for you – not for themselves.
The most powerful marketing happens when campaigns are integrated across traditional and digital media through a singular, meaningful promise executed in impossible to ignore and hard to forget ways. Be leery of anyone telling you something different.
To find out how we can develop a powerful integrated campaign for you, click here.