That beautiful moon is rising over Mt. Baker, a dormant volcano a short drive from our offices in Abbotsford, BC.
The World of Advertising and Marketing is Changing.
In the past we have relied on text based forms of communication – brochures, letters, newspapers, etc. to tell our story and induce our customers and clients to buy our goods and services.
Often, that has been done badly.
You’ve seen the steady stream of ads and brochures trumpeting the virtues of this product or that service. The focus is on the company, it’s employees and why they are better than the competition.
Only rarely does one find an ad or brochure that is visually attractive and focuses on solving the customer’s problem.
Millions of handheld, electric drills are bought each year.
Are they bought because the buyers have this innate desire to own another piece of high tech hardware?
Of course not!!
The main reason to buy a drill is to make a hole – in wood, plastic. metal, or?
So where are the ads and brochures extolling the speed and precision at which a hole can be drilled?
Of course, that’s a rhetorical question. They rarely exist. And if they do they stand out.
Why is the Print Media in Decline?
Many have chronicled and explained why the print media is in decline.
Clay Shirkey writes in "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable" “… If you want to know why newspapers are in such trouble, the most salient fact is this: Printing presses are terrifically expensive to set up and to run.”
Jeff Jarvis tells us in “The Great Restructuring” “… Newspapers will vanish. Magazines are in worse shape than I would have guessed and many will go. Books‘ channels of manufacturing, distribution, and sales will go through upheaval…
Advertising will be next to feel the earthquake avalanche, after media. ”
One of the unspoken and unwritten reasons for the decline of the print media has been the plethora (I love that word) of ineffective ads produced in the media.
Here’s the process:
Ineffective Ad – Customer ignores the Ad – Business sees reduced customers – Sales are down – Business reduces ad spending – Newspaper revenues decline – Newspaper cuts staff – Fewer quality articles – Less people read the paper – More ineffective ads – Newspaper revenues decline – Newspaper closes
A number of mainstream newspapers have closed or moved online recently. Others are hemorrhaging money on a massive scale.
As a solution they are laying off staff, reducing frequency and even moving to the World Wide Web to reduce their costs and increase their reach.
Unfortunately, the monkeys in charge of designing the online ads are the same monkeys who designed the ineffective print ads.
As a result, more ineffective ads. Fewer people buying.
Less advertising money spent. Less revenue for the advertisers.
What are others saying?
Dr. Ed Brenegar writes “Three Communities and Change”…“… The business and governmental institutions of our world as currently organized are incapable of adapting to the rapid changes that have been happening in global society. And I would add to this list traditional social, educational and religious institutions as well.
Each is attempting to survive in a time of chaos. Each attempting to find some sort of continuity from day to day, from one crisis to the next….
We are witnessing the beginning of an era where the institutional structures that we’ve depended upon for maintaining progress and continuity in our world are now declining into powerlessness or extinction.
I’m becoming convinced that what all these national and global commentators are missing is the significance of local communities. There is a great emphasis on the power of virtual communities, but that is a different thing.
From now on we are all members of three distinct communities.
* The global community through institutions of business and government.
* The virtual community through the tools of social media and the internet.
* The local community through the place where we live.
These communities are not mutually exclusive. They touch, blend, cross-over and impact each other. They contribute and support one another. As with all things, we are connected, interwoven and forever interdependent upon one another. ”
Thanks to Bill Kinnon at “Kinnon.TV”… for the link.
And what are You saying?
Is YouTube and Online Video the answer?
YouTube and the other Internet based video channels have been seen as the savior for online advertising.
As with anything, good tools don’t make good product.
Only good craftsmen with good tools make good product. Or good craftsmen with inferior tools.
We are seeing online video with great visuals but with limited power to motivate the viewer to act.
Maybe the answer for businesses will be to produce good video for the local and virtual community.
Win
HeartBeat Films 