Is Traditional Marketing Dead?
In a world where we are addicted to our mobile telephones, have access to all of the information we could want at our fingertips and can buy anything from groceries to cars online…is there still a place for traditional marketing?
Marketing is all about reaching the right people, at the right time, with the right message. For most, digital marketing offers unbeatable opportunities to do this. Just last week, I visited two great events in one day about social media and digital marketing and could have attended a third in the same day if I’d had the stamina.
That said, I can’t help but feel that we may be missing a trick. In financial terms, most successful investors know that you shouldn’t follow the crowd — buy when others are selling and sell when others are buying they say. Yet, as more and more firms take up social media marketing and neglect traditional channels, your clients are more likely to see similar messages from your competitors — making it increasingly difficult to stand out.
As well as this, while I don’t believe social media will ever completely disappear from our lives, I see more and more people choosing to disconnect, even if just for small periods of time. The ‘always on’ mentality brought on by the digital age, alongside the increase in mental health issues (highlighted by the recent body image focus of mental health awareness week) is causing many to question whether social media should play such a huge part in our lives.
Recently, Pretty Little Thing — an online fashion retailer — along with several social media influencers, launched the #socialfreesaturdays hashtag, to raise awareness of the negative impact of social media, a bold move from an enterprise which perhaps owes its success to digital marketing. But with more people taking this approach, can you afford for your target market to not see your message one day out of seven each week?
So, what should we be doing differently? Personally, I’d urge firms to consider more traditional marketing options, alongside their digital strategies.
According to TheDrum.com, Swedish furniture retailer Ikea experienced 495% social lift after a well-timed advert during the Game of Thrones ad break, proving that both traditional and digital channels can dovetail to deliver your message successfully and reach new audiences.
At Vintage, we’ve experienced huge success by turning artwork from a local artist Abby Taylor into retro-inspired postcards to share with the world. These are primarily a great offline marketing tool, replacing business cards and providing the opportunity to thank clients with hand-written notes.
Yet this offline medium has also provided us with a way to easily brand photographs - meaning that we’ve built up a suite of pictures to be used online when the occasion calls.
We also sent the postcard around the world via our clients and friends asking them to use hashtag #avintageviewmadeitto when posting online. The campaign was so successful that our ‘Rosie’ reached as far as New Zealand in one direction and Toronto in the other, along with another 32 destinations including Bali, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil and India.
I believe the campaign worked so well because it tied in very strongly with our Vintage values, particularly our dedication to keeping things ‘human’ and also delivering a unique experience. Additionally, the postcard was a lovely play on our name — harking back to the days of handwritten notes, sent and received with love.
Whatever you choose to do, any marketing activity must fit with your corporate values and say something unique that your competitors can’t. As I mentioned earlier, following the crowd makes it impossible to stand out so make sure that whatever you do, it’s your own.
While TV and print are options, there’s radio, direct mail, merchandise, magazine advertising, public relations, events— all kinds of options to play with and so long as they are delivering the right message, at the right time, to the right audience, then, for me at least, traditional marketing still has a huge part to play in brand experience.
What’s your thoughts?
All views are my own.
References
https://iamabbytaylor.com/vintage-chartered-financial-planners
