I don’t quite understand the fixation advertisers have on the complex task of reaching the “hard-to-reach” audience, when most audiences are easy to reach. Actually I lied, I do. Beware the term ‘Advanced Advertising’, especially when it promises to cure all of your advertising woes. “It’s clear that all advertisers are now embracing the power of advanced advertising solutions to grow their businesses,” said Joy Baer, general manager, FreeWheel Advertisers. As a leading ad tech platform, you can trust FreeWheel’s stance on the matter is totally objective (wink). But I take umbrage with the use of the words “clear”, “all”, “advertisers”, “embracing”, “power”, “advanced” and “solutions” in that sentence, because strung together with a variety of prepositions, adverbs and pronouns make it seem as though there is an ironclad consensus that we’ve moved on from Unadvanced Advertising. Other than that its fine. The case for reaching niche audiences (Advanced Advertising’s value prop) goes something like this: A) you are not wasting money on people not interested in what you’re selling, and B) customized ads are more relevant and therefore more persuasive. But the waste is what works and great creative appeals to our humanity so therefore can make almost anything relevant.
Avoiding the simple (admittedly expensive) task of Mass Marketing means negating 3 things that make advertising work for brands; becoming as well-known as possible, instilling an air of legitimacy and creating a shared reality. Apple, McDonald’s, Coke, Ford, Budweiser, P+G and Geico will attest. I’ll repeat myself for the 1 millionth time just to be sure not to offend the Addressable crowd… Advanced Advertising can help in the lower funnel and with niche categories/small businesses (who can’t afford the big time). But if you’re not one of those and looking to knock your strategy out of the park, keep it simple stupid: create a great ad and show it to as many people as you can.
