Last week I sat in some media pitches with a client. This was the first time I'd done it since the emergence of social media and as a result I quickly became aware of the difference between how brand owners would like us (as consumers) to behave online and how we actually behave in 2010.
Firstly, media agencies still use terms like "buying an audience". Our view is that today's audiences cannot be 'bought' - consider the stat which says 78% of us trust peer recomendations but only 14% of us trust advertising.
Secondly, TV advertising is still talked about in terms of the proportion of audiences that "often notice TV ads". That's a very different way of looking at a channel to the social media opinion, which is that audiences may notice TV ads - but do they actually engage with them and react to them for every brand? Probably not.
Of course, this is very much a purist digital view.
The reality is that no business should focus its marketing spend on one particular channel, and the 'right' mix will vary by brand and audience. At the risk of 'stating the bleedin obvious', youth brands should perhaps consider whether press is the right channel; if you're in the travel sector then social media sites like TripAdvisor will undoubtedly play a massive role in your comm's mix. But for sectors where the answer is less clear cut, how do you know where and how to reach out to your customers?
The answer, as always, lies in the two golden mantras we always apply to strategic planning: who's your audience and what's your business problem? From there an effective media strategy can be built that is highly likely to include a mix of the following: TV, radio, cinema, press, outdoor, web, email, search and social media.
As always though, stats and numbers must be used alongside the most potent weapons in any marketers' arsenal: experience and gut instinct. Add that in to the planning process and the answers should all become clear...
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