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The Soothing Music of Surround Sound Marketing Tradition, experience and college advertising classes teach that advertising should be strategically deployed to maximize reach and frequency. Agencies have reinforced this approach by ensuring clients reach theoretically appropriate and effective levels of saturation in key outlets for each medium before expanding a campaign. The roots of this strategy stem from a time when the types, as well as the number, of media outlets were limited. Times have changed. Twenty years ago, video-game playing, MTV-watchers armed with TV remotes initiated a sea change that is coming to maturity with today's multiple media consuming, instant messaging audiences. While media consumption habits were evolving, the universe of media types and outlets was exploding. To succeed in this complex environment advertisers need a new vantage point — especially if they want to reach the lucrative 18-24 consumer demographic or early-adopter business buyer. Surround Sound Marketing — using a range of media and outlets to leverage the strengths and benefits of each — is turning traditional advertising strategy on its head. The concept is simple: surround the target with messages that drive awareness while pushing them toward less expensive communication channels, such as the Web, to learn about the product or service. In the movie Minority Report, characters eyes were scanned, then based on the results of the scan, ads, targeted to the individual's demographics and buying patterns, surrounded them. While this Surround Sound example is science fiction, it is the direction in which today's advertising technology and strategies are moving. When implementing a Surround program it's important to change the way the traditional TV, radio, Web, print and outdoor mix is implemented. Additionally, advertisers need to identify other options that will result in surrounding the prospect while ensuring the ad buys fully leverage the investment for maximum ROI. When it comes to traditional media there are several simple, yet key strategies to include in the program: • For broadcast, increase frequency within a smaller window by running shorter ad units at higher frequencies, especially in key day parts. • When negotiating broadcast for a Surround Sound effect, it is essential to explore sponsorship opportunities such as special events, contests, live appearances and other approaches that will increase the number of potential touch points with the target. • A rationale similar to broadcast can be applied to print by reducing the size of the ads while running them on consecutive pages in each issue. • Look beyond the print ads to sponsor contests and other activities that will increase the number of touch points and provide opportunities to generate news for an earned media program that complements the advertising effort. • On the Web, contextual banner ads are important, but just as important are search engine placement buys (for more information read Issue 24 Internet Advertising Makes a Come Back on MDB's Web site. With the target audience surrounded by traditional media, it's time to go to the next level by covering all the bases. Here is a small sampling of the many "new" ways to surround the prospect: • Mobile billboards that patrol specific geographies can be traditional print or large screen multimedia. Commercial delivery trucks also are "selling" the space on their trucks as rolling billboards. • "Station Domination" transit advertising that purchases every available ad space in a subway stop. • To reach the European market, Ryanair sells advertising space outside the overhead bins and on the back of seats. • Toll plaza sponsorships, where the advertiser picks up the tab for tolls during high peak traffic times in return for signage on the highway. • Coffee cup sleeves carry print advertisements, and if your product is small enough — such as a mint or gum — samples can be included. • Whole buildings are being turned into advertising space at night using newly available projection equipment. • Many commercial buildings now sell advertising space in elevators and rest rooms. • Movie theaters, once the bastion of boring slide advertising have begun to run full motion short, as well as extended-length commercials. • Cities and non-profits are "renting" public spaces as ad space, including: the Bronx Zoo, New York's Grand Central Station, Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, City Hall in Beverly Hills, CA and entire subway trains in Las Vegas. • Billboards and product placements not just in movies, but in video games have become common practice. • In one Northwestern US city, the homeless are being paid to carry display ads, akin to the "old-fashioned" sandwich board. The icing on the cake of an effective Surround Sound program is an earned media component. By pursuing coverage of the product or service in news outlets, the prospect receives detailed information needed to actually make a buying decision. This last component ensures the prospect is completely surrounded. The reality of a Minority Report advertising model is closer than any of us thinks. By changing their viewpoint, advertisers are turning traditional media strategy upside down and as a result spurring the most difficult to reach buyers to action. Email this newsletter link
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