Put the Pedal to the Metal - marketing and the Internet - Brief Article

Put the Pedal to the Metal - marketing and the Internet - Brief Article
Brandweek

In his classic book, Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy writes, "When I write an advertisement, I don't want you to tell me that you find it 'creative.' I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product." Amen. Distressingly, there are too many professionals who have not internalized Mr. Ogilvy's message. During the past few years these people are the ones who have led the stampede to Internet advertising. And today, many of them are sounding the retreat.

In many cases these advertisers and marketers jumped into Internet advertising not because it was the right thing for their brands, but because it was the cool thing to do. And happy to take their money was a whole new breed of naive marketers, the Internet entrepreneurs, who were even more clueless when it came to marketing.

The mantra in this heady Internet boom time was "eyeballs." In the pre-Internet, pre-eyeballs era, lazy marketers concerned themselves with the same thing, only they called it "advertising awareness." Whatever it's called, the cold reality is the same: There is no correlation between a consumer's awareness of an ad, or for that matter the degree to which they like it or find it entertaining, and their intent to throw down cash to purchase the brand. Despite the fact that Mr. Ogilvy had this figured out 50 years ago, we still see things like the Super Bowl ads, the huge budgets of which are justified solely on audience reach and the hope that they'll be well liked in popular polls.

Despite all of this attention on misdirected metrics, some folks did start to measure ad clicks and, more importantly, desired consumer actions--registrations, downloads and purchases--instead of passive eyeballs. But they didn't like what they saw, and the retreat began in earnest. No great loss, however, because what was left for dead was never actually alive. Ineffective, lazy advertising doesn't sell. Never has, never will, online or off.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, however. Internet advertising is actually jam-packed with potential, but that potential is largely unrealized.

Marketing is an investment, not an expense, and advertising is simply one of many ways I can invest my marketing dollar. And like every other marketing investment, for my advertising investment to pay out it must directly motivate more people to buy more stuff more often for more money. The Internet inherently has the unique capability to sell at the individual consumer level much more effectively than mass media can.

Converting this potential into reality starts well before you develop ad creative and buy media. It begins with building a solid strategic foundation for your brand, which includes clearly defining what business you're in, knowing the short- and long-term destinations for your brand, how you are going to position your brand and to what target audience, and how this value proposition will positively differentiate you from the competition. Then you need to bring this strategy to life in ways that effectively engage your target consumer, build and deepen your relationship with that target, and motivate them to buy. To be truly successful you will not stop for high fives at this point, but will keep the pedal to the metal, converting triers into regular buyers and regular buyers into evangelists.

The Internet can play an effective role at every step along the way. It has the capability to be the most dynamic, flexible, customizable and precisely targeted medium out there. Like everything related to effective marketing, it takes hard work and lots of it. It means rigorously and smartly mining databases. It means knowing your target consumers very well. It means applying continuous pressure (never rely on "momentum"--the minute you do, your consumer relationship and the related business that comes from that relationship will begin to backslide). It means fully embracing the two-way interactivity of the Internet medium. Don't talk at your target consumers, converse with them. Listen. Recognize that context is critical, and then aggressively seek the context that primes the pump for your message like no other.

The bottom line is that the Internet is an effective advertising medium there for the taking. Know what you want, and be prepared to work hard to get it. If it does not work blame yourself, not the medium.