Advertising Today: Niche Marketing
May 21, 2008
I love it when 20 somethings write about how “advertising today” is somehow different than advertising at any other point in history. They write like ads never failed before the turn of the millennium. They seem to think that the practice of niche marketing began shortly after Al Gore invented the internet.
The internet hasn’t changed how people operate. The internet is just another communication tool. When men were drawing on cave walls thousands of years ago… they drew dirty pictures. When the internet became mainstream, guess what kind of pictures were leading the way?
The same is true of advertising. Advertising “truths” written at the turn of the 20th Century are still as relevant today as they were 100 years ago.
The difference is that in advertising today, especially with advertising on the internet, you can SEE what works and what doesn’t. There is little opportunity for delusional thinking. Either those waltzing dancers are driving people to the website or they’re not.
The waltzing dancers is a reference to a television spot which aired a few years ago. Obviously created in response to the “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” television show’s success, the ads were aired outside of those tightly targeted programs. I wish I could remember who paid to produce and run those ads, but I can’t remember. What stuck with me was the way my teenage son gasped when he first saw it and uttered these immortal words:
“THERE IS NO WAY THAT AD MAKES ME WANT TO BUY THEIR TIRES.”
The campaign quickly died, but I still wonder what the agency AND the tire company were thinking.
Let me put it this way, I can’t FIND the waltzing dancers tire ad on YouTube… but I can find 81 versions of Bridgestones hilarious 2008 Super Bowl ad:
What makes that ad great…. it’s memorable, it’s hilarious AND it clearly illustrates the implied benefit of Bridgestone tires.
What the internet has done is provide a way for that classic to live on and be played over and over again.
Which brings us to what makes the ad above REALLY super stupendously great… I’m airing it here for free. Bridgestone isn’t paying me to air their ad. Yet, it’s getting played here and throughout the internet… long after the campaign ended.
Advertising today is no different that advertising 100 years ago. There are many different ways to make an ad memorable. Being funny is the hardest. Tightly targeting your message to your niche market is the easiest.
Advertisers phoning it in on Superbowl XLII
February 5, 2008
You’ll notice Superbowl XLII didn’t generate much "buzz" about the advertising this year. The spots were dull and boring…. almost as if everyone was just "phoning it in". After all… the outcome was inevitable if you listened to the "experts". No one was expected to watch the massacre! Why even bother playing the game…. just crown the well deserving (cheating) champions and let’s get on with it.
OOPS! Turned out Superbowl XLII was an INCREDIBLE game. It was a classic "David vs Goliath" and by gum, David (a.k.a. the Giants) pulled out a win, with the game being won with a mere 2 seconds left on the clock.
So, with 97.5 MILLION viewers at stake, advertisers who had previously turned in "game winning " performances on the advertising front didn’t this year. Salesgenie.com’s ads were so horrible, I can’t help but wonder if they did more harm than good! It certainly didn’t make me want to sign up for their services… and as a business owner, I AM their target audience!!!
I never have understood phoning in any advertising campaign, but especially not one as expensive as a Superbowl ad buy!
Hear that? It’s the sound of 97.5 million viewers who weren’t even tempted to sit through the commercial breaks by the third quarter. It’s the sound of getting more eyes than you paid for watching your ads. It’s the sound of a collective yawn nationwide.
The only exceptions were these mildly entertaining spots:
- the Budweiser ad with the Clydesdale and the Dalmation
- the Bridgestone ad with the screaming squirrel/wildlife
As if to add insult to injury and to commemorate their mediocrity, this year there’s a myspace page featuring ALL the (mostly) crappy ads! Yet another reason for advertisers to NOT to phone it in that was ignored.
If you’re a small business who feels like you’ll never "understand" how to effectively market your business… take heart. All the money in the world doesn’t seem to be able to buy good marketing sense.
Revisiting the Sales Genie story
February 26, 2007
Thanks to Dennis Hatch in his article on Super Bowl Critics. In it, he proclaims that of all the Super Bowl ads, only Sales Genie’s had a chance of measurable success by their irresistable offer….
What I saw was another story…
If you’ve read my earlier posts, you’ll see that Sales Genie has been promising 100 free leads for quite some time now. The problem was that in order to get your “Free” leads, you had to provide a valid credit card.
THREE CHEERS for Sales Genie… because in Dennis’ article, he points out that you no longer need a credit card to claim your 100 free leads. Read more
The value of a Niche
February 1, 2007
Sorry, but I have Colts on the brain this week. So do alot of other Hoosiers and even some who don’t call Indiana home.
You could say that Colts fans are an ideal definition of a niche market and one where geographical location plays less of a role than you might imagine.
Brain Gardner is a Colts fan who’s actually living in Chicago. (Watch the game at home Brian! It’s not going to be safe for you to be on the streets come 10:00 PM Sunday!) So while Brian lives outside of “official” Colts territory, he still identifies himself as part of that “niche audience.” My family lives in southern Florida, but as transplanted Hoosiers, we still root for the Colts even though we live less than 2 hours away from Dophin Stadium. Even though we’re physically far removed from Indiana, we’re also counted as part of that “niche market.”
The thing is, if you’re targeting Colts fans, you now have our undivided attention. What have you got for us? We’re ready, we’re listening. We are a niche market ready to whip out our billfolds and buy, buy, buy.
Oh, my hair dresser from Boston feels a bit differently about the whole thing. She’s a BIG Patriots fan and though I haven’t spoken to her in the past 10 days, I imagine she’s not donning a Peyton Manning jersey these days.
In this case, it’s easy to see that most Bostonians are NOT in the market for Colts gear this week. So defining your market as “NFL Football Fans” is TRULY too wide of a niche. How many people do you see displaying the NFL logo with pride? Can you see the difference between defining your niche as “NFL football fans” and “Colts fans”.
As you drive through neighborhoods in South Florida this week, you can instantly spot the Chicago transplants and their Hoosier counterparts. Very few homes are decorated with generic Super Bowl XLI to celebrate the event being held nearby, but Bears and Colts fans alike have dug deep to show their hometown pride.
THAT IS THE VALUE OF A NICHE MARKET!!! The question remains; How narrowly have you defined your niche?
Sales Genie’s Super Bowl XLI Gamble
January 30, 2007
Sales Genie has stuck their neck out and taken a big leap of faith by advertising during Super Bowl XLI. They’ve signed up to pay over $8000 per second to air their ad. If their ad is compelling and their message hits home, their gamble will pay off by encouraging hundreds of thousands of visitors to their web site over the following 48 hours. Then, the essential key to the success of the ad is Sales Genie’s ability to convert those visitors into paying customers.
Long ago, I visited the Salesgenie site. They were advertising on Fox News, I happened to be watching and I went to check them out. I have to admit, I found the whole promotion process employed by Sales Genie to be deceptive. They didn’t convert me into a customer and I can’t help but imagine that hundreds of other site visitors won’t be reaching for their credit cards any time soon.
Read more
You’re spending how much to run an ad during the Super Bowl?
January 27, 2007
In an article at CNN Money titled, “Are Super Bowl ads worth the money? With a 30-second spot said to cost as much as $2.6 million, some question the wisdom of advertising during the Super Bowl.” Paul R. La Monica tackles the pros and cons of spending several million dollars (don’t forget production costs for these ads) for a single airing of an ad.
Anheuser-Busch, Pepsico, Coca-Cola and General Motors are among those who have already made a committment to advertise. None of these companies has to worry about their Super Bowl ad bankrupting their company. However, Go Daddy and Sales Genie have a lot riding on this. Neither has the advertising budets available to other major players who are taking a gamble on advertising during Super Bowl XLI.
Yesterday I got an email from Sales Genie. It reads, “Watch Our Commercial from the Super Bowlâ„¢ Sunday, February 4! then visit Salesgenie.com® for 100 FREE sales leads and give us your feedback on our commercial. We don’t have talking lizards or Clydesdale horses, but we can make you rich. “
Here is a smaller player, a firm who is taking a HUGE multi million dollar gamble. They are WISELY trying to hedge that bet by mining their email list. However, instead of hyping their spectacular Super Bowl ad, Sales Genie has instead begun apologizing for not making their ad entertaining or “Super Bowl Worthy.”
In other words, Sales Genie has rented a mansion and they’re now planning to furnish said multi million dollar mansion with RTA furniture from Wal Mart.
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