When I began working in the marketing/advertising/design world, computers were something that only large corporations used – no such thing as a “personal” computer. If you wanted to create artwork that printed using more than one color, you needed Amberlith or Rubylith, and an X-acto knife. White Plaka and Liquid Paper were an illustrator’s best friends, and my biggest problem was keeping a set of Rapidograph pens free of India Ink clogs.

Things have changed.

Today I can blow off the concept of color seps entirely. I send out a PDF file (usually over the web) and the printer either sends it to a plateless, digital press, or makes the plates from the PDF. No need for color seps, and I seldom have to deal with Match prints or color proofs. (Granted, I don’t do a huge amount of exacting color print work right now – most of my business has moved to online work.)

Of course, online work brings a whole ‘nother set of challenges. No end-user calibrates their monitors – nor would even understand why that’s important. Browsers interpret HTML, CSS, and JavaScript differently, as do different operating system platforms. Consistency? Fergettaboutit. There is no way to build a website that looks and works the same way on every browser/platform, short of doing the entire thing in Flash, which opens up different – but equally as daunting – cans full ‘o grief. Add PDAs and palmtops to the mix, and you’ve got some Excedrin-sized nightmares.

So it seems things haven’t changed all that much, at least as far as the headache part.

What interests me from a marketing perspective, is that the media may have undergone a huge, tectonic shift, but the need to communicate the message has not. Fundamentally, all of marketing can be distilled down to telling a compelling story to enough people to make a difference. That’s it. The whole enchilada. No story, no marketing. No marketing, no sales. No sales…well, you get the picture.

When we talk about what’s changed, you really have to divide that into two groups – tools and techniques. Tools have changed so much that an artist trained in 1970s techniques would be lost – or useless – today. How we use those tools hasn’t really changed that much – but perhaps it should.

Take TV. The advent of the DVR (a.ka. “Tivo”) has revolutionized the way we watch television. To date, however, it hasn’t done much to change the way marketers use television to advertise. Thus, TV has become a much more expensive medium, CPM-wise, because so many are skipping the commercials.

How about radio? Terrestrial advertisers answer to the satellite revolution was to go online. That caused conflict with talent, who wanted to be compensated for the additional exposure – and overpriced themselves out of the market. The result is that advertisers have to buy space on the air AND online, and never the twain shall meet. Double your anguish, double your costs. Ouch.

Newspapers? Magazines? Readership is down, and if you believe all the “top of mind” hype they try to push at their clients and prospects, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in purchasing.

Online? It can be effective, but most of the traditional advertising tools – you know, “bigger, louder, more annoying” – just don’t work online. Social networking sites and Instant Messaging are the Brave New Worlds to conquer for advertisers…if only they knew how to reach people without annoying them or losing all credibility.

What’s vital to understand is that what we are witnessing is a change from one era to the next, in the same magnitude (and with the same results) of the change from the eras where dinosaurs ruled the Earth to the one where they dissappeared. It’s not just the tools that have changed. It’s how we will have to use them in order to be effective marketers.

So let me pull out my crystal ball and see what I can see for the future…

TV. Wow. Big changes here. I predict a lot more annoying promotions at the bottom of your screen. Perhaps desperate networks (there’s a great name for a dramady!) may even try to pump ads into the space. Continually. Hopefully, they’ll stop covering up the story with their ads, and relegate them to the letterbox bars. Don’t hold your breath. I think product placements are the trend of the future here. Only the well-heeled need apply. TV spots as we know them today are an endangered species.

Radio: Local radio will be forced to evolve, and become more…well…local. Not much point in local radio if all they’re gonna do is to broadcast nationally-syndicated shows, when you can get the same thing – only better – from your satradio. Advertising won’t change that much, other than trying to find a metric that will let you know what’s working.

Print: Good luck. Newspapers are dying. Magazines are becoming much more the realm of narrow, specialized interests. That’s good news for targeting campaigns – but bad news if you want a generalized reach. There will always be a market for print, but it’s heyday or dominating the world of advertising is over, unless some global EMP shuts down electronics for good.

Email: Dead man walking. I wouldn’t suggest an email campaign to a client for any amount of money. Spam has all but killed the usefulness of email as a marketing tool – EXCEPT if you’re into permission-based marketing.

Instant Messaging: If anybody figures out how to SPAM phones, this will quickly become this year’s email…in other words, soon to be coming to a “useless technology” seminar near you. Until then, it’s great for permission marketing.

Websites: Few use the web to its fullest advantage. Websites should be targeted at specific user types. Don’t force users to figure out how to get info from you – figure out how they prefer it, and serve it up, fresh and hot to them. Lots of room for growth and innovation here.

Viral: This is the gold mine. Right here. Figure out how to grow your market by giving your clients respect, and allowing your market to grow through word-of-mouth. Figuring out how to use the tools we have available to accomplish this feat is the question of the new age.

Outdoor: The rules remain the same – it sorta works, depending on the client, and of course, location, location, location. Unfortunately, unless you’ve got a big honkin’ budget, the big guys get the best seat at the table.

Other: Advertisers are constantly looking for new ways to get their messages before the public. Shopping carts. Supermarket floors. Automobile wraps. Hot air balloons. You name it. If it works, do it, but keep in mind, the more ads there are, the more visual clutter results. Hard to cut through that clutter when everybody else is screaming just as loudly as you are.

The Secret: I dunno. Wish I did. My best guess is that it’s going to involve a lot of hard work, reading tea leaves, trial and error, and trying to build relationships with customers, instead of treating them as some generic demographic. Which is to say that, the more things change…

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 11:17 am and is filed under advertising, design, marketing, media.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.