Why Emerging Media

Part 1: The World of Traditional Marketing is in Chaos. Why?

People don’t watch TV, read the newspaper, listen to the radio, answer the phone, or even read their mail like they used to. As a result, once reliable marketing solutions are becoming less efficient. Actually, traditional media itself is a lot less efficient for 5 key reasons:

1) Clutter: To combat the seemingly endless barrage of messages from television, radio, print, direct mail, newspapers, telemarketing, and outdoor advertising, consumers are becoming very skilled at tuning it all out – making it nearly impossible for an advertiser to rise above the din and connect with its target.

2) Declining audience: The long-term trend among most traditional media reveals a shrinking audience base, yet escalading costs, so advertisers are reaching fewer people but spending more money:

• Television: network TV’s audience share has fallen by a third since 1985
• Magazines: total circulation peaked in 2000 and is now back to 1994 levels
• Radio: listenership is at a 27-year low
• Newspapers: circulation peaked in 1987, and the decline is accelerating

3) Time-Shifting: TiVo, and now satellite radios with hard drives, enable consumers to skip marketing messages altogether. “By 2007, nearly one-fifth of all U.S. homes will be able to fast-forward TV commercials, eventually disrupting the entire value chain for
television.” (Yankee Group, 2005)

4) Multi-Tasking: Even when an advertiser can reach the target, it’s unlikely the individual is even listening or watching.

“[T]he most dramatic change from previous years is that so many children [and young adults] routinely multitask, thereby being exposed to the content and advertising of two or more media simultaneously.” (Kaiser Report, 2005)

5) Losing Trust: Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a double-digit decline in public trust in institutions and the media as well as in companies and advertising, which means consumers are greeting advertising messages with more skepticism than ever before.

• “Public trust levels in national governments, the United Nations and global companies are now at their lowest since tracking began in January 2001.” (World Economic Forum, 2005)
• “Public attitudes about the press have been declining for nearly 20 years... Americans think journalists are sloppier, less professional, less moral, less caring, more biased, less honest about their mistakes and generally more harmful to democracy than they did in the 1980s.” (Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 2004)

Part 2: Emerging Media is a disruptive technology... >>