Yelling ≠ A Conversation

Posted on June 30, 2011 by admin

Picture this. You’re walking down the street; there are strangers in suits on both sides of the road, holding up their products and shouting at you in a barbaric attempt to get your attention. Theidea of hopping the fence in order to get closer to you never occurs to them. After awhile you become desensitized to the brutish noise, with the exception of the occasional voice that’s even louder and more annoying than the others. Then a smart, down-to-Earth person climbs over the fence, casually approaches you, and engages in pleasant conversation with you.

Now THAT is how you advertise.

This scenario is how I sometimes see the advertising world and all of its participants. If you were trying to establish a relationship with someone in society, you wouldn’t just scream at them to get noticed would you? This kind of attention-grabbing is impersonal and unappealing to people, and like in the metaphor above, would come across as crazy. You want to be that down-to-Earth person who is legitimately interested in having a real, human conversation with the individual. Listen to them; get to know them; converse with them. You have some interesting things to say and so do they. From sincere, productive conversations come sincere, new relationships. And after all, relationships are what we’re after.

I know it can be tempting to yell. With all the noise around, one’s first instinct is to yell louder than everyone else. But instead of contributing to the noise, it’s more important to think strategically. Hop the fence, and treat your consumers like the individualistic humans they are.

That’s how we get the quality attention we’re looking for.

-Andrew

Is Your Business Prepared for the Changing Times?

Posted on June 24, 2011 by admin

According to a recent Advertising Age article, tablet users are expected to double by early next year. While the number of current tablet users may not seem outrageously high now—only 12% of American internet users (28 million people) are accessing the web through tablets today—a study by the Online Publishers Association and Frank N. Magid Associations predicts that roughly 54 million Americans (23%) will be using tablets for internet access by early next year.

So what does that mean for your business? It means you should seriously be considering the next steps for your online presence. If tablet growth continues at the rate it’s going, it won’t be long before tablet devices are a staple of the internet browsing experience for your customers, not just a rising trend. So there’s no better time than now to get ahead of the curve.

And keep in mind that it’s not just tablet use that’s growing. At ADwërks, we’ve seen a similar trend with mobile website usage. One of our clients, CarHop, has seen huge jumps in the number of visits to its mobile website over the past few months. From 3200+ visits in December to 5700+ visits in February up to 7500+ in April and May, the mobile site has seen an increasing number of visits each month and it looks like that trend will only continue moving forward.

It’s not hard to see that internet use on tablets and mobile devices will continue to grow in the future. As our dear friend Bob Dylan said, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” It’s up to you to decide if your business wants to evolve with the times or stay stuck in the past.

Stop Annoying Your Target Audience

Posted on June 21, 2011 by admin

This post is a could-have-been complaint turned into a business lesson on keeping your target audience in mind.

You see, there’s this music news website that I visit pretty regularly. The reason I check it regularly is because they update the site daily with newly-released music. Unfortunately, this site has been using ads on its music pages that play noise when you roll over them. And sometimes rolling over those ads is nearly unavoidable.

This means that while I’m in the middle of listening to a song (which, as I mentioned, is the only reason I visit the site), I’ll suddenly hear a random assortment of talking/singing simultaneously playing from an unavoidable banner ad for Cherry Dr. Pepper.

Let’s put this into a business perspective. You have a meeting with John. You go to your meeting and start talking with John. Then, mid-meeting, John pulls out his cell phone and starts another, totally unrelated meeting with someone else. And John expects you to be completely ok with that.

This is what happens to me almost every time I try to listen to new music on this website. And, as you can expect, it’s really starting to turn me off of that site. I’m just about ready to move on to new places, simply because they can’t use a noise-free banner ad on their music pages. Probably not the result they were going for.

My point is this – in any aspect of your business, it’s important to consider what your target audience wants. Not what you think they want. Not what makes you the most money. But what will keep your target audience returning as loyal customers instead of driving them away over time.

Because if your product or service is annoying to your customers, that alone could be the difference between someone choosing your product/service or instead choosing an option that doesn’t annoy them when they try to use it. All in all, it’s for you to decide. But in my experience, the happy customer option is usually a pretty good choice.

-Mike B.

Photo by Patrick Fitzgerald. Thanks Patrick!

Media/Mirror Fragmentation

Posted on June 14, 2011 by admin

Times have dramatically changed since the days of newspaper and radio. There was once a time when reaching people with advertising was simpler, because the media options were simpler. If media can be represented by a large mirror in which people view and connect with the world, people had only one, maybe two reflective shards to look into. As a result, advertisers always knew where to find their audiences.

Fast forward to the present, and there is a plethora of media options to choose from. What used to be a solid, sturdy mirror, has now shattered into many fragments varying in size and reflective power. One shard is radio, one is Twitter, one is a video game, etc. So who’s looking into which shard? Everyone has their own unique combination of usage. And when the next form of media breaks off from its respective shard, the fragmentation will spread even further.

Since there are so many different ways to reach people, from an advertiser’s standpoint, it’s not always easy to know how and where to communicate with them. Break it down to an increasingly diverse group of demographics, all with varying media habits, and the equation gets even more complicated. But “advertologists,” (like our esteemed leader at ADwërks) have remained resilient. There is a lot of progress being made with the utilization of the digital age, and it can only get better. Although this “mirror” fragmentation has certainly posed to be a challenge, in a way, it’s pretty serendipitous. With modern technology allowing for an always-increasing connectability throughout the world, media fragmentation has allowed us to narrowly target and reach the smallest and most “nichy” audiences, efficiently and effectively.

These days, we are not only harnessing the consumer power of a large, dominant demographic, but we now see the value and power in the small demographic groups as well. We recognize the individual and have developed an interest in everyone’s “reflection” (aka consumer profile). So bring on the fragmentation, it can only strengthen our connection.

- Andrew

What Macho Man Randy Savage Taught Me About Business

Posted on June 3, 2011 by admin

As a childhood fan of professional wrestling, I was more than a little sad to hear the news a few weeks ago that “Macho Man” Randy Savage had passed away. One of my all-time favorites growing up (as my multiple Macho Man action figures can attest to), Macho Man brought a flair and excitement to his matches that other wrestlers just didn’t have. He was more than just “a pro wrestler.”

After thinking about what made him more than just a pro wrestler, I realized what made Macho Man so unique (and how it can apply to the business world).

Plain and simple, Macho Man had personality. Lots of it. Whether he was flying through the air in neon green tights or “snappin’ into a Slim Jim” in a loud and over-the-top Slim Jim commercial, Macho Man capitalized on his entertaining personality in order to make his footprint in pop culture history.

The question is, does your business have a personality like that? A personality that puts a smile on people’s faces and gets them excited about what gets you excited? And if it does have that kind of personality, how are you showing it off to the world?

That’s the beauty of smart advertising. It gives you a chance to highlight your business’s personality in a way that draws a customer in and makes them want to be a part of your passion. Advertising shows them what makes you unique, and it does so with a purpose.

Having a personality sets you apart. It makes you memorable. Don’t let the opportunity to show off that personality pass you by. You may not need to show it off with pink and green tights like Macho Man, but you’d be surprised at how well you can share your business’s passion and personality with just a little bit of advertising.

Oooohhh yeahhhh! Dig it!

-Mike B.