Alleblog

As we have all seen and heard within the past several months, the “big boys” of the media world are pulling back and making way for others. In fact, if you’ve been watching your local news or better yet, highly priced and ranked shows like American Idol recently, you might be noticing a different strand of advertisers popping up. Since big spenders are cutting back, this allows for buyers to purchase time periods that might not have been possible for them in recent years. At the moment, spot TV is becoming more and more aggressively priced, making it a great time to advertise.

This situation also holds true in the print arena. While it might not seem like the best thing for a trade or consumer magazine to be thinning out, attention to the advertisers that remain is heightened. Some publications are being forced to cut back in size and/or editorial content. Given the scenario at hand, I try to look at the positive: less editorial content ultimately results in less competition for readers’ attention.

Radio is also another area from which smaller budgeted advertisers are benefiting. Prime day parts such as morning drive and evening drive are much more affordable than they have been in the past, even on highly ranked stations.

This “Old Media/New Opportunity” theory is very much two fold. On one hand we are all hoping the economy will come out of recession but on the other hand, these media “bargains” will be shortlived and we should all be taking advantage of them while they are here.

By Lindsay Reasner, Media Director, Allebach Communications

Behavioral Target Marketing
By Jamie Allebach, Allebach Communications, jallebach@allebach.com

“We need to make the most out of every dollar in our marketing budget”. “ROI, ROI, and more ROI”. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard these words over the past 2 years, I could retire from this crazy business that I love.

No matter how much the creatives scream, “no, no, no, it’s all about the creativity and ideas”, I must agree, ROI seems to be ruling the day. Bottom line, as marketers, if we’re not getting the highest value of return on budget dollars, we’re not doing your job.

And it would appear that I’m not in the minority of those who think this way. eMarketer (hyperlink http://www.emarketer.com) predicts that the total spend on behavior targeting will exceed a billion dollars this year, and continue to rapidly grow, topping 4 billion by 2012.

Today, behavior marketing goes well beyond simply matching up the right ad, with the right consumer, at the right time (and yes, with the big idea and break-through creative). Behavior targeting is now more sophisticated than ever.

But Amazon makes it look so easy…You buy a book and then a week later an email arrives saying; “hey, we noticed you purchased THIS book from Amazon, so you may also be interested in THEESSEE BOOKS”. Brilliant! Kinda like getting your fortune told…they are predicting your behavior and marketing relevant products to you.

A couple of years ago, Yahoo developed “Smart Ads”. Custom, tailored ads, targeted to consumers based on their Web searches. Yahoo has over 500 million users. Sounds like a pretty “smart” way to invest your marketing dollars. Although Google is on the way to one-upping them.

Yes, the online targeting is the hottest thing going right now, but there are plenty of traditional venues for behavior targeting. You can easily measure the types of TV spots viewers are watching, what shows they like, how long they watch them, their age, purchasing patterns, likes, dislikes, and the list goes on. The same is true with radio spots, print and other mediums–all to help better target consumers.

Retailers and CPG companies are utilizing customer loyalty card data to track customers’ shopping and spending patterns and convert that knowledge into highly targeted marketing programs.

Behavioral targeting is by far the best way for marketers to understand the interests, habits, and purchasing patterns of consumers. Therefore, equipping you to develop marketing initiatives that target potential buyers based on their previous behavior. Yes, people who would be the most likely to buy your product. That, my friends, is ROI at its best.