Everywhere I look on the net I see video. Not the type of video YouTube is full of. There’s no harm in it, it serves it’s purpose, the society needs it… it’s either that or YouTube is just a bunch of people with nothing better to do than sit and watch college guys lip-sync Britney and more recently Souja Boy.


There are plenty of great digital productions out there. Rampenfest, Signs, Carousel to name a few. Every day more are coming up. There is a good explanation for it. Delivery channel expenditures. Launching an ad campaign on TV is becoming a luxury only household brands can afford (and that in limited capacity). And nowadays they get often hit over the head for splurging on TV (this year’s Super Bowl PR terror).


Not so much with video advertising produced and distributed primarily through the Internet. It makes sense really. All kinds of research show TV advertising effectiveness dropping. After putting some time into it I came up with some thoughts as to what I believe is happening.


On a grand scale competition is increasing. If you shop on the Internet you can buy practically any brand of stuff you want anywhere in the world. Shopping at a mall might be a scaled down version but the principle holds. More and more often members of our society look for a specific product rather than a random purchase born of need or desperation. This is significant, because the sales process is moving away from pitching the idea of “a good buy” to the idea of “the best buy for you!”


The significance of this shift can be translated into marketing strategy. In the near future (in some markets this has already happened) marketing in developed countries will increasingly focus on the loyal customer base. Why? Because beyond the age of customer acquisition (from observation somewhere around 10 I’d say) all that is required of a brand is to maintain the promised deal in good standing. There are of course many conditions to this good standing but I am interested in its marketing component in particular.


Loyal customers want to see marketing that is entertaining and engaging. The engaging bit has been all too much discussed through the fancy social networks, web 2.0, marketing 2.0, interactive marketing, etc. language. The entertaining bit is another story. In the olden days marketing happened at point of sale. There were signs, sometimes a suit and tie, other times it was stuff now considered politically incorrect. As a side note, I still wonder how no one thrashes hostesses at car shows nowadays.


Recent years were dominated by an airtime competition. Whoever got on TV with the hottest ad was king of the hill. Here comes the shift again. Nowadays marketing happens everywhere. That’s the fun part. Entertainment is moving away from the TV set no matter how much the networks like to say otherwise. Most of it is moving to the Internet. If everything is moving towards the Internet, why will entertainment in marketing do otherwise? It’s cheaper, of course. Some say that is a bad thing because the low price shows lack of value. I disagree. The value comes from better targeting. Scientific Atlanta product managers can come up with whatever kinds of new ad management back-office systems they want. It will not change the fact that the medium of the future is not a set top box.


So. We’re left in a world in which we need to market to loyal customers through cost-effective, entertaining, and well-targeted content.


Yours truly,


(Wersja Polska niebawem)