ENGAGE Consumers And Beat Any Crisis
ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — With the Dow on a mostly downhill roller coaster, the mortgage industry in crisis, the government talking bailout, and presidential candidates running back to Washington to work on their day jobs, it’s hard to view things as business as usual, even if brokers and analysts across the country are tirelessly touting their “hang in there” speeches.
Interestingly, the views of the advertising community have been myopic at best. Advertising industry buzz continues to focus on the impact the economic slump may have on ad spending from the financial industry, or how Wall Street woes could stifle mergers and acquisitions in the technology sector. One day we’re told advertising spending has hit an all time low, the next day we’re told it’s not impacting online advertising. A few articles have delved into the wider ramifications of a deepening economic crisis to the online world, but as of this writing, it’s still pretty much a “deer in the headlights” response.
This approach to Wall Street’s woes overlooks the real place where the rubber meets the road – consumer spending. Spending decline leads to reduced revenue, which leads to budget cuts, which generally means marketing and advertising are among the first budget line items to get slashed…you know the story. So yeah, ad spending could decline. But the online advertising industry sits in a unique position to provide just the technological solutions that could not only stem the tide of reduced online ad spending, but create an increase. Perhaps it’s time for our industry to take a good hard look at what it’s actually providing to advertisers – to go beyond impressions, clicks, and conversions.
So, how do we respond to the online advertiser who’s stuck in that all too familiar scenario of a declining budget with increased performance expectations? For starters, we know that more consumers are shopping online, and, specifically, shopping for deals. Logic would dictate that the successful advertiser should optimize each and every online engagement point, find and nurture their best customers, and then make ongoing media decisions based upon which buys are actually furthering their business’s Key Performance Indicators.
But even with all the latest online technologies like engagement mapping and behavioral targeting, does an advertiser actually know if he’s got a relationship with the person seeing his online ad? Can he know if that user has already been to his site and purchased a toaster oven? Probably not.
What if the advertiser could tie his internal KPI’s to his media buys’ performance? What if he could actually build a customer relationship with every ad served? Online advertising spend currently represents 8% of all advertising, but the medium enjoys 17% of all viewership. Do you think advertisers would move more ad spending online if the technology could keep up with the needs of their companies’ key business metrics? These are the technology shifts to look for in the near future. The kind that put the advertisers’ and consumers’ needs first – creating a truly personalized advertising experience for the consumer, which, properly translated, turns into sales and brand loyalty for the advertiser. And the advertisers’ success, you guessed it, equals our success. I think we’re up to the challenge.
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