Marketing Expert Examines Key Trends in Consumer Media Consumption
Tuesday, 15 November 2005
Lynn Fantom, chairman and CEO of ID Media, delivered an insightful keynote address at the ADVO National Sales Conference recently. Fantom discussed the impact of digitization and consumer individuality on the marketplace. ID Media is the largest direct response and digital media services firm in the country.
ADVO, convened its leading managers for a conference in Bonita Springs, Florida, to examine the impact of technology on marketing and other trends. "Our discussion is about the seismic shifts that leave us in a different landscape than we found ourselves in only a few years ago," Fantom began.
"Shifts have occurred in how customers are consuming messages, and where - and even if - they consume our messages." An ever-expanding universe of "traditional" media is being challenged by 20 million Web sites. According to Fantom, "Marketers are no longer the only source of information on any given product. Customers are publishing on blogs and have at least as much opportunity to influence brand perception as the marketers do."
Fantom advised marketers to provide URL response options in their placements in ADVO and other traditional media and to develop microsites where consumers can seek information prior to a brand decision. Marketers should also learn to think on "multiple platforms."
"Consumers live and work in multiple media environments, and control our access to their eyes and ears. So we have to extend messages across both a broader, and more targeted footprint, in order to be effective," asserted Fantom.
One example was pairing the targeted messages offered by ADVO with the targeted television spots served by the emerging technology of Visible World. Print advertising providers like ADVO, Fantom noted, offer marketers new targeting techniques that leverage sophisticated demographic and behavioral modeling.
"Whether it's been for a quick serve restaurant or a savings and loan, such targeting has helped us find the consumers who will find the offering to be most relevant." ID Media utilizes segmentation to identify promotionally oriented consumers for many programs. Highly discrete geographic targeting also allows marketers of products like high-speed Internet service to hone in on serviceable areas.
"For the consumer crying out for relevance and recognition of their individuality, it's a public relations crime to promote a product in an area where they can't get it," Fantom concluded.