It’s nothing new; advertisers and marketers are always looking for a new angle to grow their clients’ brand equity and market shares (and their own). But Madison Avenue still kicks and screams when it comes to shifting from traditional marketing to online marketing.
Not for much longer if they know what’s good for the goose is good for the glamour…I mean gander (and does anybody really know what that means anyway?).
The fact is that being found online – and being found online often in the context of relevant organic Web searches, PPC advertising and online advertising – is where you want to be.
Consider that:
- Google’s latest quarterly profit soared above $1 billion for the first time.
- According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, a virtual cash cow for advertisers (much to the chagrin of the parents).
- According to study last year by eMarketer, for nearly 70 percent of households with incomes of more than $75,000+, the Internet is the primary source of information about B2C products and services.
- According to our own recent HR buyer behavior research, 30 percent of HR buyers chose a search engine such as Google or Yahoo! to identify vendors of minor technology/software.
- Several Web sites rerunning Super Bowl ads as part of polls asking viewers to pick their favorites are cashing in big on the millions of visitors to their sites – without having to pay the $2.6+ million for a 30-second television spot (from a recent Wall Street Journal article).
In this last example, Web traffic to IFilm (one of the sites that has such a poll and sells pre-roll ads) increased 157% during the week after the Super Bowl.
The closest thing the HR marketplace has in comparison is the “big show” – the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo.
Can you imagine hosting a poll on your site asking HR buyers what the coolest marketing giveaway was at the big show and big shows past (with stills and video clips), and then selling ad space to HR vendors as the traffic rushes in?
Hmmm...we can.
Posted by Kevin Grossman