Changing lifestyles bring changes in marketing "channels"

A recent article by Joe Mandese, editor of Media Post, says companies, including some big pharmas, are beginning to recognize that many target audiences are slipping through the cracks with traditiona

By Editor on Apr 12, 2006

A recent article by Joe Mandese, editor of Media Post, says companies, including some big pharmas, are beginning to recognize that many target audiences are slipping through the cracks with traditional media advertising on TV and in magazines because they spend more time outside than they do at home or in their workplace.

Mandese relays the story of GlaxoSmithKline's Nicorette marketing team, who wanted to catch the attention of young, urban African-American smokers. So, instead of taking an ad in GQ, they turned to a graffiti artist know as Slang to paint a mural on the side of a building at the corner of Flatbush and Cortelyou in Brooklyn, NY. The mural, according to Mandese, is one of five painted in similar locations in four other urban areas.

According to Martin Sorrell, head of mega ad agency WPP Group, the percentage of time people spend neither at home or work has grown from about 8% in 1960 to about 18% today.

Billboards and traditional radio advertising are still viable options, Mandese reports, but increasingly marketers will have to turn to iPods, cell phones and satellite radio. In addition, he says, progressive marketers also will rely on so-called experiential marketing like GSK's graffiti murals or street teams of professional sales people who promote brands to fellow pedestrians.

McDonald's is promoting its healthier menu choices with posters in workout clubs. And ads for a variety of other products are showing up on video screens in hair and nail salons, in elevators and almost anywhere else consumers are captive for more than a moment or two.

I recently took my daughters to a sporting event and saw my friend's meteorologist husband on an ad for the local TV news station on the wall in the ladies's room. Somewhere, I'sm sure the marketing team who created it knew we would likely be waiting in line for a while.

One recent survey claims American consumers are hit with more than 10,000 marketing messages each day from TV and radio to magazines, billboards and inserts in their mailboxes. It seems that number is about to go up exponentially.

All bets are off. There, obviously, is no such thing as traditional marketing anymore. It's anything goes and those who hesitate will certainly be lost.