The idea of AudienceShift started at work as a conversation about how consumers will never be the same. At some point, this might become a book, a whitepaper, a Twitter feed but right now it starts with a series of blog entries here on Scrappy Marketing.
As you probably know I work in Advertising, and used to spend most of my time helping Fortune 500 brands figure out how to best spend their marketing budget. It was simple, really. Clients told us what their goals were and how much budget we had available to reach their target audience with a set number of impressions. Our language morphed from brand awareness and recognition to terms such as cost-per-lead and cost-per-acquisition. But the essence of our business stayed the same - we helped our clients succeed by helping them communicate their unique selling points in a compelling way which was all done by buying media space of sorts.
Don't get me wrong, a killer advertising campaign - even with a smaller budget - would do better than a lame duck campaign. We loved small, creative clients that we could do great work for. As long as they could afford a healthy monthly agency retainer. So yes, even a small agency client would be someone who could still spend at least $5 million a year on media.
If you were a business that couldn't afford to spend millions of dollars on media then you simply weren't going to be a client of ours. And really, you were not going to even compete with our clients as marketing budgets usually were a primary indicator of marketing success.
Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for small- and medium sized businesses, mom and pop shops, solo entrepreneurs all the way to the guy looking to liquidate his aunt's beanie babies collection - the rules have changed and the playing field has been leveled. And truth be told, being the progressive agency that we are, we have started exploring ways to work with clients and marketers of all sizes.
Thanks to the evolution of the Internet, massive media fragmentation, the slow death of mass media and the development of thousands of micro niches and the availability of incredible free technology, marketers of all sizes now have a shot at that pot of gold.
The elusive mass audience has dissolved and shifted into thousands and hundreds of smaller audiences. A micro audience can still be millions of people strong but they don't care about watching television commercials. That's what TIVO is for. They don't cut out magazine ads. They listen to free radio on the Internet. They don't click on banner ads.
They are online. They are on their iPhones. They're talking in forums. They're doing Google searches. They're tweeting. They're catching up with old friends on Facebook. They watch videos on YouTube and Hulu. They're reading peer reviews. They're listening to free video streams, buying ebooks, downloading whitepapers and mingling with their peers and even clans.
So how do you get those people to become your customers? Not by spending media dollars to acquire them. It's by building an audience. And how to build an audience is something that I will write about in the coming weeks. But if you're a marketer, just begin thinking about the concept that audiences are undergoing a shift of ginormous proportion, and there's a huge opportunity to build your business. By building an audience.
Hey Mario,
Thanks - I found your post as I was searching for material to back up my argument that banner ads don't 'just work' and that companies need to ask whether they want people to be clicking on their ad 'because it's there' or 'because they believe and want to be a part of something'?
I totally agree a lot of what you say, but I also am an avid reader of Chris Brogan (www.chrisbrogan.com) and he talks about communities as opposed to audiences. If you think about an audience - they tend to gather for a one off purpose and then dissemble. If you went to a concert of a band that you weren't that fond of, you would still be part of the 'audience' regardless of the fact that you weren't a fan. If you were the band, you would probably rather know that your audience was filled with fans, and I believe that fans make up a community. So maybe the question is, how do we 'engage' in a meaningful way with our audience (once we have them gathered) that will keep them coming back, talking, living/breathing our brand? A member of an audience will still 'click because it's there' but a member of a community is more likely to 'click because they believe in it and want to be a part of the brand.'
It's human nature to want to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. I think it's this trait that needs to be understood and tapped into.
Pamela, thank you for your comment and welcome to Scrappy Marketing. I couldn't agree more with you about the consumers' need of belonging. And I am also an avid reader and big fan of Chris Brogan. However, I do believe that not every brand can necessarily get all of their consumers to become part of their community. While it's a noble thought, I just don't think there's enough emotion to go around.
For example, I am an avid member of the triathlon community. I participate in all kinds of conversations and would go as far as to giving pet names to my equipment. I am a fan. and I am a member of a community to which I have great affinity.
In comparison, I also read the New York Times which I enjoy immensely. But I would never think of myself to being part of the New York Times community. I don't leave comments and I don't interact with other reads. But I am part of their audience.
Now, going on step further. I use a certain type of shampoo. My mum brings it to me from Germany. And I think it has caffeine in it which might or might not help in ensuring that I don't go bald for a few more years. If that company had a content strategy that would keep me informed about different hair loss developments, I would probably sign up and become part of their audience. If they did a good job of staying in touch and then came out with a new product, I would probably give it a try.
But I would never be part of any community evolving around that product. Hair (or the lack thereof) is just not something that I feel passionate about.
So to me, building an audience is great first step for companies to help build a sustainable marketing program. And then to your point, I do think the long-term goal has to be build a vibrant community but that will likely only be with a small percentage of its overall audience.
Thanks for your comment Pamela.