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Stacey has over 25 years of experiences working with some of the biggest brands in the world. When she's not busy taking care of the "fur babies" she's at the kiln busting out new pottery.

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Traditional & Digital Media: We’re Better Together

Is This the End?

It’s all over the news lately. Postmedia bought Sun Media, then laid off 90 staff. Rogers Media recently announced that it is cutting 200 media and administrative positions. The January 29th edition of The Guelph Mercury will be it’s last, printed or digital; 26 staff affected. The CRTC is forcing cable companies to unbundle their packages, in order to allow subscribers to decide what they want to pay for. As I stated over a year ago at an IAB Roadshow presentation (LINK) I gave in Calgary, I am glad that I am not in the newspaper business. Consumer desire for on-demand content is driving unprecedented change in our industry. We need to adapt, or get left behind.

Traditional and Digital Media

Digital technology has made the marketing and advertising landscape far more challenging to navigate than it was 20 years ago. To take the next step, we merely need to change our perspective. The major media around which most national advertisers build their campaigns (Television, newspaper, magazine, radio, outdoor), are simply channels that deliver content. Video content is delivered through a wide variety of screens. News and information is delivered through websites, social media, and blogs. Audio is consumed through radios, media players, mobile devices. Though the distribution channels are evolving, it’s still really all about reaching the consumer, but it needs to be on their terms, not ours.

We <3 Media

At Vovia, though we are founded in digital, we are truly media agnostic. We focus on what media best delivers against the campaign goals; be it awareness, conversions, engagements, and so on. In today’s world, traditional media is still an important part of the media mix, but the delivery of that media is changing on a fundamental level.

People are still watching traditional broadcast television. They are still listening to broadcast radio. They are still reading the newspaper. It just so happens that these folks tend to be older. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t also using their tablets and smart phones to connect with family on social media, reading news, watching video (they are). Media choices have expanded, and attention has fragmented. Consumers are simply harder to reach. Considering these facts, traditional and digital media need to work together now more than ever before.

Better Together

All media is more effective when it has complimentary and supportive channels working with it. If you have budget for a television campaign, consider how that creative and content could be extended into the digital sphere. Social? Online television? Programmatic video? In-banner video? You have so many options available to you to enhance your traditional media and ultimately increase the effectiveness of your overall campaign. It works both ways too. We know that increased awareness helps improve response rates and brand recognition online, so why not consider traditional awareness tactics to help boost your search campaigns? Perhaps you’ll incorporate a hashtag into that TV spot, which could then be used to track online conversations. Maybe a Native strategy could help add context to a radio or outdoor campaign? The options are limitless. You just need to have an open mind and an appetite for learning.

As the consumer becomes more fragmented in their consumption and continues to engage in multi and simultaneous screening, we feel a media agnostic strategy is more critical than ever. This strategy needs to be measured and tracked through attribution analysis to ensure performance is quantifiable and also to understand how the media has played together to enhance the consumers experience.

What’s Next?

The media world will continue to evolve and there will always be that ‘next thing’ that shakes it all up. But doesn’t this make our worlds far more exciting? Roll with the punches, evolve with the evolution, and always remember, media is just a vessel to reach your end consumer. Give it to them how they want to get it, and you’ll be just fine!

How do you use Traditional and Digital media in tandem? Share your thoughts below!