The advertising world has a little problem. It is getting harder to get to grab the attention of people.
Advertisers and media companies need to look at multi-channel strategies to reach multi-tasking Canadians, according to a study by Ipsos Reid.
The study, entitled “Online Media: All Change,” found that nearly half of Canadians (44%) are watching TV or listening to the radio while surfing the net.
On average, online Canadians spend almost equal amounts of time watching TV and surfing the net—approximately 15 hours each week.
Advertisers and media companies must develop multi-channel strategies and standout creative to capture consumer attention, said Mark Laver, study author and associate vice-president of Ipsos Reid.
“When we’ve got people multi-tasking, I have to question if the advertising message is getting through at all,” he said. “From an ad perspective, you’ve really got to come through with some creative, unique advertising to capture people’s attention if they’re doing two things at once.”
Here lies the difference in philosophy between traditional marketing and the Tribal Approach.
While traditional marketing finds new and creative ways to interrupt a person, the Tribal Approach finds creative ways to support the person and the tribe. Traditional marketing has a diminishing effect on the person. For example, a TV ad may seem clever at first, but each subsequent time a viewer sees it, the effect is diminished.
Likewise, the diminishing effect can occur through the life-cycle of a technology. Internet advertising was very simple in the beginning; just banner ads. People thought ‘Wow! That’s cool’. But then people started to ignore them, thus advertisers brought in pop-up ads to grab the attention of the surfer. However, soon people were annoyed by them. In fact, an industry was created to find new ways to block these ads. Shoshkeles (floating ad’s) were cool at first, but they too were a nuisance…and so it goes.
The modus operendi has become one of continually out duelling your competitor by coming out with more creative content while trying to develop innovative technologies. While there is plenty of benefit to the advertising industry, there is something left to be desired by the consumers.
Advertisers, marketers and brand managers should instead focus on orchestrating the various tools around them to ensure they are doing what is best to support their consumers and the tribe.
