Life is Hard. Advertising is Harder.

Advertising is developing an increasing need to be entertaining. Gainging viewers used to be as simple as putting an ad on network TV. Most people were watching TV, and there really weren't enough shows to make the audience difficult to reach.

Now, not only do we have massive segmentation of the audience, from magazines to 500 channel TV packages, we also have an increase in power for the consumer. Sure they always had the option to change the channel, but now they can zip through them or zap past them all together with their DTV recorders. There is so much interactivity on the web that anything else hardly catches a second glance.

This makes it absolutely necessary to find new ways to capture the audience's attention and keep them engaged. Another challenge to this is keeping trust. When you are advertising energy drinks or spray on scents, it isn't as much of a problem. You can show something very comical, and people will remember your advertisement and your product in a positive way. If you have a more serious product, like car insurance for example, it can be a little tricker. Humorous insurance advertisements have been shown to capture the audiences attention. What it does not do, however, is establish the brand as trustworthy or even differentiate the brand from others, aside from the possibility of not falling into the "stuffy auto company" category.

In anycase, advertising is getting more difficult. Greater barriers are being faced to engage the audience and persuade them into action.

I love a challenge.

Research

Research is necessary for any advertising campaign. It is necessary to find out what issues are preventing any particular product or service from achieving greater sales, or greater sales growth. It can also show you how the competition is interacting with consumers.

The problem with research, however, is that its answers are speculative, but are not treated as such. Consumers can provide excellent ideas, but these ideas are only a starting point to help jump start the agenda planning.

Research is not an excuse for poor advertising. Just because a focus group in Idaho led you to believe that your campaign would be received with open arms, does not take away personal accountability.

In conclusion, research is necessary. It is a step in the process, a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself.

Content this!

In the old days, it was simple. Advertisers paid programs for Ad space based on the number of viewers that particular program had. Now, however, technology allows the advertisers to track how many of the program's viewers also watch the commercials.

This works out very well for the advertisers because now they don't have to pay for people who are flipping the channel as soon as they are given a chance to reach them. What I find to be interesting, though, is how this effects television.

It is common knowledge that "content is king". If you want someone to engage with your newspaper, magazine, book, website, radio or television program, you have to have good content to keep them coming. Now, television programs will not only have to have good enough content to attract viewers, they will also have to make sure that their content attracts the type of viewers who will stick around to watch the Ads.

If you like the Pope, then you'll love buying my product

In an article by Henry Chu of the Los Angeles Times,I learned that Vatican Radio, which follows the movements of the Pope, has decided to start selling Ad space after 80 years of Ad-free operation. This must have been an extremely difficult decision for the Vatican to make. I'm sure the consideration of the ethical dilemma of a sort of "holy endorsement" isn't one that was taken lightly.
This made me think about what the future will hold for advertisers. If a fully functioning religious authority has become open to advertising dollars, then no one will consider themselves too high and mighty to indulge in the profits.
Schools might consider selling Ad space from their walls. I would hope this would only be for high school and colleges, but seeing it at elementary schools wouldn't be suprising. They could even start hosting brand sponsored peprallies and sports events.
If your convincing enough, you just might be able to get people to sell Ad space on their cars. It's already been done on race cars. Why not use regular people's cars. I bet that could end up being very cheap and fairly effective (although driving habits should probably be taken into consideration).
Of course I'm mostly joking, but only mostly...

Consumer power

The use of the internet by consumers is something that has interested companies for a long time now. While it does work as a very effective mass media tool, it also creates an environment where businesses have to pay more attention to the individual. This is because people have as much reach and power over the web as companies do. If a person believes they have purchased a poor quality service or product, or that they have been treated unfairly, they can easily express their discontent to a large audience with the use of the internet. Whether through the use of facebook, twitter, or blogs, most people can get on the internet and express their opinions to followers who are sure to listen. For this reason, businesses are going to have to be more sensitive to each individual's needs