The Robust Future of Radio and TV
The more I study ‘new’ media, the more excited I become about the role of traditional broadcast in the new media mix.
Advertisers have always been in love with ‘word of mouth’ advertising, in part because recommendations made by a friend are perceived as more credible than paid advertising, and in part because word of mouth is free!
The various new social media are merely world word of mouth on steroids….happy customers that might have told two or three friends about a business can now tell two or three hundred friends with the push of a button.
But a new study released just last week quickly points out why advertisers can NOT put all of their eggs in the social media basket and must still use radio and TV to reach out to the masses.
The new study by Cone, a division of the Omnicom Group, reveals that becoming one of the businesses that attract followers or friends on social media is no easy feat.
In the press release that introduced the study, Cone said, “Even as new media adoption explodes – up 48 percent from 2009 – loyal followers can be hard to come by for companies trying to reach consumers online. With millions of the world’s brands a click of the mouse away, new media users still choose to demonstrate affinity (e.g., “like” on Facebook, “follow” on Twitter or subscribe to an RSS feed) for an average of only 4.6 companies online, making this club one of the most difficult to which a company can hope to gain access.”
In our Electronic Age Media Mix advertiser seminars, we encourage media companies and advertisers to embrace new media because they are all free or cheap.
But we also reveal new evidence every week that the clutter, fragmentation, and evolving new platforms make it impossible to replace traditional media with new media. New media can enhance a broadcast campaign in a low cost and measurable way, which is attractive to advertisers.
With the evolving demise of Yellow Pages and newspaper readership, radio and TV are becoming an even more important marketing communications tool for local advertisers who find it difficult to be one of the 4.6 businesses followed online.
Contact us to forward the complete Cone press release about this September 2010 study.