Recent news of Southern Comfort, www.southerncomfort.com, moving their entire ad spend from traditional advertising to online is just another sign that not only is marketing changing, but online is proving to be more and more effective.
Southern Comfort says “savings from the switch to a 100% digital media buy will allow the brand to bolster its presence in bars and at retail, as well as through events. It will also give it a significant footprint online, where a $10 million budget stretches very far.” And that “As we’ve focused more on 21 to 29, TV becomes less and less effective at reaching that audience. It was getting harder and harder to hit our target without so much waste.”
This is a clear sign that companies are starting to understand the value of online marketing and the value it can deliver. They’re also recognizing the value of advertising to consumers who are searching for their products and services, avoiding wasted advertising spend.
Century 21 also announced that they will be allocating a significant portion of their ad spend to online. Currently Century 21 committed 10% of their ad budget to online marketing, but they plan to increase this greatly of the next few years becasue the results on the online ad spend warrants a shift.
As Beverly Thorne, Century 21 senior VP-marketing, told Advertising Age, “the company’s research and testing revealed that its online investments in 2008 were substantively more productive and efficient than its offline efforts.”
In today’s interactive market consumers are more fragmented and dispersed across several channels. It’s much more difficult to reach target markets. They’re not just sitting in front of the tv or reading a newspaper. Consumers continue to use these channels, but their usage rates are lower and lower each year.
You can now find users on any number of news sites, social networks, blogs, video sites, search engines or many other media channels. Consumers are becoming users, users of the media they demand and want to see. They now have options to ignore what they don’t want to see and focus on the things they desire.
CC
