Archive: October, 2008

(Part 1 of this series, The Rules Rewritten)

“I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half.”, John Wanamaker 1838 – 1922, founder of the first American department stores and 35th US Postmaster General.

John Wanamaker lived in a gilded age that many think was much simpler than ours today. For a person of Wanamaker’s talents and ambitions however, the late 1800’s and early 1900’s would have presented challenges and difficulties left far behind in the age of digital marketing. The memorable quote attributed to him opening this post illustrates problems posed by traditional print, radio and television advertising.

It’s all about moving messages. Momentum in and of itself is the answer. The real question advertisers must ask is; “Who get’s it?” There is only one group of modern marketers who can give a true and thorough response to that question, digital marketers.

By and large, there are three ways to get information to large groups of people. Traditional advertising channels (print, radio and television) resemble a burst of grapeshot from a cannon in which an enormous number of projectiles are used to hit as many targets as possible on a broad field. Some projectiles will hit targets while most others will miss entirely. The shotgun effect.