Marketing
Why You Shouldn’t Put All Your Eggs in the Ads Basket
The days of micro-targeting are numbered
The invention of the smartphone was revolutionary for marketers and advertisers. Online ads, individually targeted ads, and geographical ads were not possible a few years ago. If a brand wanted visibility, there were three options: television ads, print ads, or billboard ads. Customization and localization based on culture were needed but that’s about it. The rest was more hope and pray that an ad worked. But with the advancement of technology, there were even more ways to reach out to people around the world.
Today, the phrase every single person in communications and marketing often here are “Let’s put on some online ads for the next few months”. Ads have been every company and brands go to fix when they need more traction on a product.
Data, targeting, and tracking are the north star metrics of marketing. Everything runs on data and tracking. Everyone seems to have forgotten there is something more important than data, word of mouth. Which remains, in my opinion, the best, affordable and most effective advertisement of all. The demand and popularity of a product don’t depend on ads. It depends on what problem does that product solves and how necessary that product is for a person. But most importantly, it all comes down to how a brand makes a person feel.
Take for instance the famous Sriracha chili sauce. It has a ZERO marketing budget and has created a food empire based solely on word of mouth. The problem it solved was simple, people wanted to have more spices in their food. They wanted something that was spicy but also exotic. Was this product necessary? for some people absolutely, but for others, they would pick up a bottle because it inspired them. It inspired them to travel, to seek new knowledge, and to try new flavors. That bottle of chili sauce wasn’t just chili, it was a portal to another world.
Ads mean nothing, having a million views of your product isn’t really a good thing if people don’t adopt and buy into the product itself. Online ads were great a few years ago, before everyone demanded privacy, not to be tracked, and before Apple increased its privacy and security settings. Apple devices and software now automatically opt-out of tracking. The precious data that everyone is valuing more than gold will soon be no more. Google will be blocking cookies completely from its Chrome browsers by 2023. Today’s audience is much more educated and cannot be swayed into making a purchase just from an ad. They demand and value privacy more than anything. With this new trend, ads should account for only a small percentage of the focus of a company, it shouldn’t be the main wheel that drives it.
Quality products, customer service, and value are still the main things that convert one-time customers to loyal brand ambassadors. There have been so many reviews and testimonies of people buying items based on online ads, only to have a bad experience and posting on social media for others to beware. The ads get people in the door but there is no guarantee that they will stay, be repeat customers, or even brand ambassadors.
In order to get a message across, the best method has always been crafting an authentic image with a great story. The best example I’ve seen recently has been Dwayne “the Rock” Johnsons’ Teremana Tequila ad. I’m not a Tequila drinker but that one-minute ad got me invested. Not only did I want to buy the Tequila, I only wanted THAT Tequila. The story of the people, the craftsmanship, and everything that the narrative shared with me really set itself apart from the competition. It became a product that I not only searched for but coveted.
With all the changes of privacy policy going on these days and the rise of the gig and creators economy, ads are no longer a trusted source of information the way they were in the beginning. At the beginning of the digital ads era, if a company was able to do digital ads, they must be selling quality products since ads were expensive. Nowadays, the social media ads budget is so flexible that the perception has flipped. Brands that advertised and placed ads must be in need of customers.
The rising trend is now exclusivity sells. Everyone wants that niche brand that only a select few has heard of. Let’s not forget that micro-influencers have really been a game-changer. Today’s audience, in particular, Gen Z places their trust in personalities that they know, instead of an ad that is fleeting across their screens.
In the creator and gig economy, there is a wide variety and range for content creators to become references for their followers. These creators are building their community and brand through interactions, not ads. The advancement of technology also means that the business model in the past, where influencers worked with brands and promote their affiliate codes has now gone to the next level. We have seen the rise of Substack and Patreon as a way for content creators to create and monetize directly to their audience. There are also Etsy, Fiverr, and Upwork for those wanting to create and cater to a large audience.
Communities are one of the fastest ways to get traction, traffic, and growth. At the end of the day, today’s virtual communities still rely on one of the most viral platforms of all, word of mouth.
Gaining impressions and views doesn’t always translate to conversion, sales, or adoption. Behind the numbers, the demographics, and the location, there is an individual asking “Do I want and need this?”.
Sheherazade famously said “People need stories more than they need bread”. In a century filled with tech, data, and numbers, people need stories more than ever.
