Discussing marketing budgets amongst partners, opposing camps reveal their hands. “It’s not working so why do we continue buying it?” vs. “If we stop doing it people will notice?”
There is no doubt that the financial crisis focussed attention on which marketing channels really deliver sufficient return on investment (ROI). Ask anyone who works in media sales and they will say the fun went out of that job some time ago. Meanwhile, as the audience for print media look to their smartphones for inspiration, many advertisers perceive less value and thus are reducing buying space. This is not true across all sectors and media. The pages of Flydoscope (Luxair) seem especially full!
Analysing the return on marketing spend, offline and online, has never been easy. Digital advertising produces better data, but within the financial sector few products or companies give you a reason to click. This brand building is infamous for being difficult to measure.
So if you conclude that classic print advertising is not the way to win new clients, what are your options? Reflecting on your own purchasing decisions, its clear that the perception of experts matter. If the media informs you that person X is an expert and what they say makes sense, then surely they are the person to call, if you can connect with them.
Moving the emphasis towards personal profile building also has its challenges, since no client will engage with a doctor when they need a dentist. All marketing and PR has no choice but to ascertain ‘How does the market perceive you?’ and ‘What does the market need that you have the capacity to fill?’ PR is most effective when the basic marketing questions have already been answered.