With the fragmentation of Media came the fragmentation of Marketing – and we’ve created a Monster!
Advertising became “getting a consumer to take an action”.
Reach became an “opportunity to see”.
An IMP became “the release of an asset from a 3rd party ad server”.
Then the “Funnel” flipped out!! In order to accommodate the new media landscape, the poor thing got contorted in every which way possible.
The Consumer Purchase Funnel became The:
-Loyalty Loop
-Purchase Experience
-Digital Car Buying Experience
-Lead Management Funnel (AKA The Dr Seuss Funnel)
-Social Media Purchase Funnel
-Customer Journey Funnel (AKA The Fish Funnel)
Hey… Funnel This! I dare you to Google “consumer purchase funnel” and try to scroll all the way to the bottom without getting dizzy.
-We have firms that specialize in increasing Engagement, Brand Resonance, and Online Fame.
-Those that can create Buzz, Affinity, and Brand Lift.
-Brand Lift is a good one. Who doesn’t want that? Lift is defined as “an increase in interaction with a brand as a result of an advertising campaign and used to identify a positive shift in consumer awareness and perception”. Lift is determined by: one’s knowledge about a product; Awareness. Having an opinion on one; Attitude. The ability to remember an ad for one; Recall. The likelihood of recommending one; Favorability. And one’s likelihood to purchase it; Intent. Quantitative Metrics are claimed to be the backbone of such conclusions but more times than not we are dealing with Endometrics; those metrics measured by the system which created the metrics. Conveniently these Metrics are (arbitrarily) tied directly into measuring Awareness, Attitude, Recall Favorability and Intent. “Likes” and “Tweets” for example are clear signs of Awareness. “Searches” display Attitudinal and Recall traits. “Page Views” are a dead ringer for Intent. OK… Maybe. But can we gauge a persons “positive shift in awareness and perception towards a Brand” strictly by what they do online??
-Native Media experts can seamlessly get a marketers message to take the form of editorial content.
-There are Social Media experts, Influencer Networks, Outbound and Inbound Marketers. Database Segmentation or Email Marketing, Online Behavioral Advertising, Programmatic, Such esoteric fields as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), or Paid Search. Content Marketing. Performance Marketing. Affiliate Marketing where marketers promote one another.
The splintered Media Landscape has provided material to use in creating more than enough works of PowerPoint Fiction, baffling anyone peering at the ad industry from the outside looking in…
