Does Advertising Work?

Advertising doesn't work the way it once did. At least that's what most marketing experts tend to say. People don't pay attention, and teens tune out the ads. Newspapers (supposedly dying) don't make as much as they once did on advertising, not even online. Al and Laura Ries (authors of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding) would say advertising reenforces, but does not guarantee success (which is more likely to come from publicity and word of mouth).

But advertising is finding a new way to get at the younger generation, and, contrary to the majority opinion, advertising is working — at least when it comes to mobile users.

According to Website Magazine,

"Google recently released the results of a smartphone-user survey it conducted... at the end of 2010. Among the key findings was the mobile consumers are particularly responsive to all kinds of advertising. ... More than 70 percent conduct searches on their phones after exposure to an ad... and nearly half of the 5,000 respondents (49 percent) said they'd used their phones to make actual purchases after seeing or hearing an ad."

Your Turn: How much importance and priority do you place on advertising? Is it still effective?

Reaching the younger audience... without ads

According to "Arts Marketing Insights" by Joanne Scheff Bernstein, Teens are extremely marketing savvy, "having been exposed to more than 1,200 advertising messages per day."

Therefore, advertising needs repetition for the audience to notice, but because there are so many ads out there, advertising may not be your best route. True awareness likely comes from other sources like publicity and branding.

How do you reach the younger generation aside from ads?

Brilliant marketing tweets to learn from

HubSpot had an interesting post today on "12 Awesome Tweets to Inspire Marketing Transformation." Here's just a taste (some of my favorites) of the thought-provoking, under 140 characters tweets:

Being in the Yellow Book is like advertising in a book... that is closed most of the time. #transform (via @stacieverbic)

Good marketers have a social media presence, not a resume. A sweet blog is more telling than a degree. #transform (via @RachelGettingIt)

Don't be pushy. "Buy, buy, buy" will result in "bye, bye, bye." #transform (via @elumic)

No time to create content = no time to make money. #transform (via @lightbodymedia)

If Google can't find you, neither can prospective customers. #transform (via @seibways)

What do you think of these tweets? Are they accurate? What are some of the more interesting marketing tweets you've seen?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/11918/12-Awesome-Tweets-to-Inspire-Marketing-Transformation.aspx#ixzz1JL8FEnjx

Public Relations versus Marketing Part 2: Every job creates an impression

In the past, marketing focused on sales and public relations focused on internal and external publics. Marketing focused on one-way outbound communication of a message promoting sales. Public Relations focused on inbound and two-way communication, or interaction with publics, working to find out what the audience wants and finding ways to give it to them.

But today I tend to look at marketing as an overarching theme for sales, which focuses on the product, and public relations, which focuses on relationships. In fact, many sales and marketing professionals are finding that people are demanding that they be put before the product. Thus, many sales people/marketers are spending more time producing information unrelated to their products than they are spending promoting their products.

When you think about it, public relations has a part in every person’s life and in every person’s job, including that of the marketer, sales person, or advertisement manager. Every interaction, every ad creates an impression. While public relations can be used to promote sales, it can escape sales. Sales, however, cannot escape public relations. Marketing is the art of impressions.

Darth Vader and the Volkswagen

*Update: According to HubSpot, the Volkswagen commercials have gotten over 1 million views now - and before the Super Bowl. Maybe it's a good thing to release Super Bowl commercials before the Super Bowl. What do you think?

A commercial so good I had to share it. What makes it successful is pretty self-explanatory.