Now that’s a lot of money.
But before we go further, consider this “50% of my advertising is wasted but I don’t know which 50%”, that translates to $35 bn or Euro 26.8 b or £18.14 is wasted in America alone – annually!
And they say “Advertising works”, hmmm, works to waste one hell of a lot of your money that’s for sure!
Meanwhile Admap’s report on ad avoidance examined research evidence on both side of the Atlantic and confirmed that people are increasingly trying to avoid advertisements.
Now I wonder which 50% we should apply that little shard of information to?
Americas’ Ad Age said recently that somewhere between 254 and 5,000 is a number that represents just how many commercial messages an average consumer gets each day.
However attempts to beat clutter only end up yielding more of it, a bitter irony bound to have dire consequences for a business already struggling with questions of relevance and effectiveness.
And just about everybody agrees on two things: It’s way too high, and the industry’s not doing anything to reduce its own overproduction.
It would be very funny if it wasn’t so sad, the fact of the matter is that clutter is leading to more clutter
You might say that it is paring back on traditional media, right? Actually, TV commercial pods are fatter than they’ve ever been, and they’re growing like a 14-year-old Xbox fan’s waistline.
The advertising industry is crushing itself under the weight of its own messaging, squeezing the effectiveness out of its product as consumers get more and more inured to the commercialisation of their culture and surroundings.
“At the end of the day, the ability of the average consumer to even remember advertising 24 hours later is at the lowest level in the history of our business,” said Bob Barocci, president-CEO of the Advertising Research Foundation.
Hmmm – now which 50% shall we add this too?
And now the end is near? Recently there was a major study on Internet clutter finding that the more ads on a page, the click-through rates, brand impact and product consideration decline. Surprise, surprise!
Research shows that a magazine reader looks at glossy ad pages rather favourably, as part if the editorial content, while a TV viewer is more likely to see 30-second spots as interruptions. Between these two poles of acceptance and revulsion falls internet users, who are simultaneously hit with both scads of generic, untargeted ads and more finely tuned pitches that takes into account behaviour that gives some semblance of relevance to advertising.
We need to refocus on the consumer, not the media. The lens needs to be refocused not on media but on the consumer, who’s cumulatively bludgeoned by commercial messages as he moves from medium to medium.
We need to refocus our efforts onto interactive communication because with interactive marketing communication, there is a commitment to participate, which in turn leads to a set of possibilities, which are significantly different in how they affect the communication process, itself.
The need for product information.
Image advertising and clutter together with active ad avoidance doesn’t give the information needed to buy knowledge-driven products. Moreover communication results from an interaction in which two parties expect to give and take. Audience members must be able to give feedback. Media practitioners must be sensitive to the information contained in the feedback. This give and take can result on real understanding or real feedback.
The need for Interactive Marketing Communication.
Put simply, because there is a human desire for interaction. We have created a media society during the past 40 or 50 years where there is an extraordinary reduction in interaction because of the one-way and more passive form of information retrieval that exists. Leading to the familiar problems of lack of accountability and clutter together with a loss of trust.
People desire to be taken account of, to affect change, learn and personalise their relationships with their environment. There are a phenomenal number of reasons, which cause people to interact, which go far beyond just giving them things.
When people participate in interactive marketing communication they are told that their efforts and feedback are of positive help to the advertisers. Moreover, by participating, they then learn and understand the message from the advertiser, personalise their relationship with the advertiser and their products (or services).
Consumers tend to filter out information they do not want to hear and this alters the effectiveness of advertising in quite a dramatic way. The purchaser’s decision is invariably a compromise and this leads to a certain amount of anxiety. The worry that perhaps the purchase decision was not the best or right one. In order to minimise this anxiety the purchaser seeks to reinforce his choice and begins to take more notice of his chosen product’s advertising. And, at the same time, the purchaser deliberately suppresses data, which might challenge his decision by ignoring the advertising of competitive brands.
People are often loyal to a brand simply because they do not want to readdress a decision. The opportunity to screen out undesired data always exists when media advertisements have to stand on their own and fight for attention.
Interactive Communication takes the consumer through the barrier of not wanting to address change; and this is the ultimate market the advertiser is after – the people who use his competitors’ products.
Now the consumer can say ‘Yes, I will change my behaviour and I have a very good reason or series of reasons why”, and have a well-informed opinion or image in mind.
If someone goes into a product purchase decision with a very specific image of the product and its reason to exist and why they have decided those reasons are worth its purchase. The test in reality, the use of the product, will tend to confirm that premise, and therefore conversion will be enormously enhanced.
Interactive Marketing Communication turns passive advertising into active advertising and actually alters behaviour during the communication and learning process.
At the same time substantially (by as much as one half!) reducing Clients marketing budgets and also being totally accountable…and much much more!
Paul Ashby pioneered interactive communication to the advertising and marketing communities some twenty-five years ago. The communication issues he addresses have been neglected during the explosive grown of advertising in the 60s, 70s and 80s, these are Cognitive Dissonance, Selective Retention and Selective Exposure.
Would you like to discover the incredible results to be attained by using interactive communication? Well these are revealed for FREE at http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com or contact Paul directly on paul.ashby@yahoo.com