State of Local

Graeme Newell at 602 Communications has a great post on the challenges of marketing ads to people who are moving away from email and other mass market advertising platforms to social networks that limit direct contact to trusted people you know. In a world where technology is increasingly making it easier to eliminate “interruption” advertising, it’s important to create a trusted relationship with your readers.

There is an adage on the internet that if you obstruct the flow of information in any way, the community will not fight you, but simply go around you. You will quickly find yourself irrelevant. As technology gets better and better, tools will continue to arise that simply eliminate unwanted interruptions like mass advertising and promotion. Holding people hostage and forcing them to watch a non-targeted ad is not going to be tolerated in the future. The audience will demand that the ads they let in be customized to their individual tastes and desires.

So what’s the answer? Newell suggests that broadcasters begin the hard work now of connecting with their audience in a more personal fashion.

Create small and carefully controlled direct communication campaigns for targeted projects. The goal here is not to broadcast to the world, but to learn the ways your audience likes to communicate. Create Facebook accounts just for the weather team and explore which type of communication works best with specific groups. Do the same with your own web page. Which gets more response, daily blog posts or having an anchor lead a discussion on the forum? Which is more popular - behind the scenes action, or follow-up discussions on big important stories? Each specific audience will be different. Use your own web page to feel out your audience’s preferences and limits. Test, test, test.So in the future, the ability to hide from TV marketing will make delivering our message and recruiting new customers exponentially more difficult. For an increasing percentage of the audience, the TiVo box will effectively eliminate all the commercial breaks in your 10pm show. That means the prime news topical doesn’t have a chance. The pop-up blocker will eliminate the weather ad. The spam filter will zap your email weather alert. Being boring, annoying or intrusive will not be tolerated. TV marketing will enter an entirely new stage - one that establishes a real relationship with viewers. It will require a whole new set of marketing skills and tools.