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Solving the Wannamaker Problem |
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Hallman's Skull Sessions
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By hhallman on |
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"I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half."
- John Wanamaker*
It is no secret that marketers, being dissatisfied by traditional print and broadcast advertising results, are slowly shifting ad dollars to the Internet, email, and to mobile technologies. In fact, 2005 Internet ad revenues were $12.5 billion dollars, up 34% over 2004. $4.3 billion was spent for display ads, and another $5.1 billion for keyword search es. Interestingly, for the most part, neither of these advertising forms come s close to solving Wannamaker's problem.
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Building Commonality with Sponsored Social Networks |
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Hallman's Skull Sessions
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By hhallman on |
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Consumer product companies, retail establishments, and companies selling business products and services all face the same problem. It is becoming more and more difficult to get and keep the attention of the target audience. Consumers don’t respond to advertising as they once did, and unless your news is truly unique, it is lost in the deluge of information.
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A Leap of Faith - Niche Social Networks |
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Hallman's Skull Sessions
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By hhallman on |
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The recent success of MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster has given rise to the heralding of social networks as the next great thing. The truth is that social networks have been used throughout human history, beginning with hunters banding together for survival.
As civilization flourished and physical “social networks” grew larger, more sophisticated communications were needed to maintain connectivity. More modern adaptations have included print books, magazines, radio, and television. Books went from mostly religious doctrine in the Middle Ages to a plethora of books on every conceivable subject today. Magazines went from a few general information publications in the early 20th century to thousands of different types of publications today. TV went from three networks in the mid-20th century to hundreds of channels today, catering to a large variety of desires from children’s programming to adult themes and everything in between.
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How New is Social Media? - Really |
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Hallman's Skull Sessions
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By hhallman on |
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I was reviewing blogs on Marketingprofs.com yesterday and ran across a great blog entry by Toby Bloomberg. She recalled a recent AIMA meeting where Mike Murphy, Chief Revenue Office at Facebook spoke about social media. Of course, the punch line was that we all should get on the band wagon with this “new” approach. I agree we should embrace this technique but I am not sure that it is new.
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Controlling your message? |
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Bits of a Marketer's mind
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By Brandon on |
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I was reading an article on CNN today about political candidates losing control of their campaigns to YouTube. It must really burn for old school politicians who are used to talking openly when the cameras weren’t rolling. I can hear the voices in their heads now – ‘You mean I have to actually mean what I say all the time, and not just during an interview?’ Yep – that’s what it means. It’s 2007, and the cameras are ALWAYS rolling! There’s always someone with a camera phone or digital video camera just waiting to catch the right moment on video or in a photo.
So it is with brands also. Many marketers think that they can ‘control the message’ by doing their own ‘viral campaigns’ on YouTube.
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Is Your Best Salesperson the Janitor? |
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Hallman's Skull Sessions
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By hhallman on |
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Here’s an outrageous idea: Promote your janitor to sales executive. While you’re at it, get your cooks, kitchen staff, clerks, stock people, busboys and administrative people to start making cold sales calls. Hell, make everyone a salesperson, even the marketing staff.
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Create your own community! |
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Bits of a Marketer's mind
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By Brandon on |
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I have read article after article on niche social networks and the fact that they are the future on the web, etc. The mega-networks like MySpace and Facebook are so entrenched with consumers that I don’t see anyone coming along and replacing them anytime soon. That’s not to say it’s impossible, but I find it highly unlikely. On the other hand, the real opportunity for growth is in smaller, targeted (and even sponsored) communities based on shared interests.
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Is Anybody Out There Listening? |
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Hallman's Skull Sessions
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By hhallman on |
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The Internet is akin to the universe. We know that it is big, but we can not really fathom how big. For the most part, except for our own little sphere of influence, the universe is a mysterious place. So it is with the Internet. As with the universe, we have figured out how it was created, but we really don’t know how it all works.
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SO WHAT? |
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Hallman's Skull Sessions
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By hhallman on |
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There was a great question on Marketingprofs.com today. A marketer was stuck trying to build a positioning statement. She wanted some help in getting her brain moving and did not want the typical statement saying they were the biggest, the best, the most experienced. I agreed and here is my answer to her:
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