Everyone would agree that the world of advertising has changed dramatically during these last 50 or 60 years since it started influencing the consumer society. The truth is that it has changed in the sense that it gave birth to a new type of advertising which is now known as digital marketing. It doesn’t mean the death of traditional advertising agencies because there are still many agencies that are stuck in the past and did not upgrade their advertising techniques.
The fact that traditional agencies are still relating to techniques that are half a century old is not necessary because they are still working so well, but rather because they don’t understand the advantages of digital marketing and that this should be the big step towards their evolution.
The oversights of traditional marketing
What has remained unchanged for so many years is the way brands advertised their products and this was and it still is done by interrupting a program with a message about their product. This tendency continued even when they tried to switch from the classical broadcast platform to the internet. They kept the message under the same form and they transmitted it through flashing billboards, annoying pop-ups or too long video ads. Today, some may call this spam.
On the other hand, digital agencies understood very well that today there are numerous platforms that have more influence than any successful TV network. This meant that brands could reach a wider range of audiences through different channels. Social media exploded and enabled digital agencies to target the right audience through very cost-efficient methods.
Nevertheless, for traditional agencies is more difficult to analyze the success of a campaign and whether the right audience has been reached. On top of that, these statistics are time consuming and pricy. With the digital era the two most important elements, time and money, are efficiently used to increase brand awareness.
What others say does matter
With the proliferation of digital channels, and the development of various devices, people are influenced not by what a brand states but by what other consumers believe and these means of communication are decisive. The “old style” marketing is not very open to change and this is a drawback because they should understand how important interaction is. Brands should use communities to share and discuss and to use their customers’ opinions.
Long gone are the days when people were convinced by an ad. This is no longer enough. Traditional agencies didn’t understand yet that content is what attracts audience. The mouth to ear technique was conveyed online and today people hear online people’s opinions about a product or a brand. This is where content plays its role. Acquiring audience online is made by increasing traffic and this is possible when people find something interesting to talk about, to share and to remember.
It doesn’t mean that the traditional way is the obsolete, useless way, but a little bit more openness and flexibility won’t hurt. In order to grow and be successful agencies should focus on the future, rather than on the past.