Why you are not reaching your consumer

Howard Chang on media challenges in a digital age

Although digital media has been around for a while, there has been a dramatic shift from traditional to digital media in the last 5 years, driven mostly by brands who fear being left behind as newspapers, magazine and even TV started showing decline. On top of that, Millenials now account for almost 40% of consumers and they certainly don't read newspapers or watch TV? Or do they?

Its true newspaper readership is down, but quite surprisingly if you combine online and printed readership of the major Canadian dailies, they are not down that much. In fact La Presse has seen its overall readership go up with the launch of its digital edition. Sadly, advertising dollars do not reflect the readership reach as brands are flocking away from what they see as a spent advertising force and have moved on to sexy mediums like programmatic digital advertising (which most don't even understand).

And even TV is taking a bashing as the "experts" are telling us Millenials are streaming content and busy folk are PVRing their fave shows and by-passing commercials. But again the numbers don't reflect the perception. The average Canadian still watches over 20 hours of TV a week! Making it still the most consumed medium including online browsing. And yes, a small percentage PVR, but TV commercials still reach millions with the right shows for the right audience. You only have to look at the first US presidential debate this past Monday to recognize that TV is still the 800 pound gorilla with over 100 million viewers watching Hillary spank The Donald! What is Trump's twitter following? Exactly.

And now with Facebook admitting they have been exaggerating their video views and essentially over charging advertisers, its evident that we have a long way to go in terms of transparency and clear value for digital advertising.

That is not to say: digital bad, traditional good. In fact, I will predict there will continue to be a significant shift to digital in the coming years. But here is the problem for advertisers: In the effort to get ahead of the curve, they are leaving dead bodies behind. By underinvesting in non-digital media, they are limiting their eyeballs and missing some high value consumers entirely. Our media agency Top Drawer Media has learned over the last 10 years, navigating the changing media landscape for our brand and retail clients, that its all about understanding your consumer. We simply can't drive them to where we want them to go. That power is not in our hands as advertisers. We need a deep understanding of where they "live" psycho-graphically, what they care about, what they believe in and where they consume content.

And to do that we just can't adopt an Omni-channel media strategy. We need to do the hard work in order to be Omni-present in their lives in the right place and at the moments that matter. For example, behavioural targeting using programmatic is a good leaping off point, but to be truly Omni-present, we need to understand how our target consumer commutes, when and where they consume news, what is their preferred entertainment, where they travel and the list goes on and on. Then by carefully choosing the right channels, that may include a range of mediums like Billboards, TV, Facebook ads, experiential marketing, etc., we can create an eco system of touch points that focus on relevancy to the target consumer's interests and behaviours. And in this approach 2 things happen. First you save a lot of money as an advertiser, as you no longer spray and pray, nor do you narrowcast and lose the chance to gain new customers. And secondly, but most importantly, you create greater engagement because you don't show up when you are not invited, like an unwanted dinner guest.

This is not an easy process, but investing in the research and consumer insights to craft the right media mix will give you a significant edge over your competition, who more than likely are following trend and thus missing the opportunity. To learn more go to:

http://topdrawer.media/

Or email me directly at howard@topdrawercreative.com