What is the first thing you do when planning for your daily commute? You probably watch the news, check for train or bus delays on the internet, or check a navigation app on your phone for the most efficient ways to get to your destination. Based on traffic or accidents, you might even consider alternative ways to get to work or meetings.
You can think of choosing your media channels to deliver your advertising the same way you plan your commute. Instead of the destination being an appointment or work, the destination is your target consumer.
As mentioned in my previous column, advertising is only successful when you make an impression in your customers’ minds that nullifies your competition’s brand image. This process might not occur instantly or translate itself to an immediate rise in sales, but penetrating and grounding your brand to the customers’ memory is just as important.
The next step is spreading your advertisement through the right channels. With the rapid development in technology, media channels for advertisement has evolved from traditional media such as print, radio, television, and billboards to new media like social media, digital and mobile websites. To prevent wasting your money on ineffective advertising, it is important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each media type when planning your marketing strategies.
To start off, if you are looking to deliver a campaign with an emphasis on branding and your goal is to have a high reach and high penetration, I would recommend strategic media such as TV and out-of-home (OOH). Television ads have the greatest impact as it offers sight, sound, movement, and color at the same time. In addition, it has the widest coverage of family audience especially during prime time. It is a step forward from static advertisements as it has the ability for story-telling. Advertisements can be demographically targeted through placing them in the time slots of specific shows. OOH is effective because it is targeted marketing to consumers when they are “on the go” and in very specific geographic areas. Some of the common OOH advertising formats include billboards, transit, bus shelter, digital inboards, etc.
If you are looking to execute a promotional campaign, look to print and radio media, which are both tactical forms of advertisement. Radio ads can tell an interesting story through sound and reach many people. However, since the audience can be easily distracted from radio ads, it is better to keep the message simple and buy spots for specific programs to ensure that the ad is delivered to the right audience. Print media such as newspapers and magazines are the most traditional and common way of advertising when you have sufficient money to spend. Geographical targeting allows you to choose between local or national publications depending on the area of distribution. For newspaper, it is useful in reaching customers who are in a particular region and has a high frequency of repetition depending on the number of ads you place. For magazines, it delivers higher impact by targeting audience who are interested in the subject matter depending on the genre of the publication.
Yet all traditional advertising media channels lack one common piece of information that advertisers are most interested in—the ability to track viewers who have actually seen their advertisements. Digital media channels allow you do just that. This include websites, pre-roll videos, social media, mobile app, etc. which come into play to bring new advertising experiences to both the audience and the advertisers. Digital media is both a strategic and tactical; for instance, display, mobile, and social media can be tactical during a promotion while video ads can be used for branding and strategy. With the users’ demographic information stored in the online database, digital system can customize what kind of ads will be displayed to every individual user according to their gender, age, race, income, interest, etc. Furthermore, the advertisement can be designed to be more interacting and engaging, and yield immediate actions from the audience through their devices by encouraging them to click for more details about a product, service, or company. And most importantly, it saves you money since digital media advertising is generally less expensive compared to traditional media advertising.
As an advertiser, you want to spend your money on something that is worthwhile because every penny counts towards your business. Therefore, no matter what media channels you choose, it is important to make sure that you are reaching the right target audience for your business.In the next column, I will talk about the importance of PR for a company.
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Giancarlo Pacheco is the President of PCA, a full-service marketing and communications agency with offices in Los Angeles and New York. For over a decade, the agency has been a leader in providing integrated campaigns for Fortune 1000 companies. PCA has served a wide array of clients including Verizon, Gilead Life Sciences, Pernod Ricard USA, Jollibee Food Corporation, AARP, City National Bank, Philippine Airlines and Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. For more information, please visit www.plancagency.com.