From Madison Avenue to Main Street the Transition to Digital Advertising Continues to Challenge Traditional Marketing Strategies

From Madison Avenue to Main Street, as more online channels emerge, marketing dollars continue to shift to online as a more effective way to reach consumers. As new ways to reach consumers unfold in the digital sphere, there is a lot that both advertising agencies and independent marketers must grapple with, and adapt to, in order to persevere.   Simply following the traditional advertising mix and norms for online will not be enough to ensure effective marketing campaigns today.

The current advertising market generates approximately $200 billion per year through traditional media outlets such as print, TV, magazines, radio, and outdoor media.  Nevertheless, the digital transition is in full effect with revenues from digital advertising continuing to increase year over year and current earnings totaling $15 billion.  Over the next three years, digital and mobile advertising is expected to reach $50 billion as more and more consumers change the ways in which they access information. Ignoring this trend is not an option for businesses seeking to engage consumers and grow their revenues.

How can advertisers adapt to the digital marketing transition?

A greater shift to online advertising requires greater analysis to leverage the advanced capabilities of digital and mobile ads. In order to appeal to consumers’ desires to access more information via smart devices and mobile advertisements, an elevated level of creativity that embraces interactivity, adaptive design and an engaging message is required. Marketers who acknowledge, embrace, and push their creative teams to adapt to this rapidly unfolding media landscape will be light years ahead of marketers who fail to change with the times. 

 Advertising agencies as well as small and medium business marketers willing to experiment with new media (social, PPC, mobile and tablet advertisements) to reach consumers position themselves for success by jumping into the digital space early.  The advertising shift to digital includes mobile marketing, which is currently in its infancy. But this burgeoning medium cannot be ignored.  Today, mobile content is viewed through the mobile browser and apps containing publisher-specific ad tags.  Marketers must work to gain exposure through those apps’ ad rolls as users shift from keyboard and mouse to touch and swipe. 

Whether in online or mobile advertising, relevancy is a key component for the future. Marketers must work to ensure that ads are relevant to site and app content or users will become fed up with publishers, developers AND advertisers.  The simple fact is that opting for advertising solutions that ensure semantic ad targeting is business-critical.

The digital revolution is in full effect. Whether you are a marketing professional on Madison Avenue or a marketer for a small local business, you cannot afford to stick to the same old traditional marketing strategy.  Success in the evolving digital and mobile marketing landscape will be about marketers’ and ad technology providers’ abilities to continually evolve both in capability and creativity. Like any new medium, the message is not perfect when it first hits the market; it evolves and matures over time.  To ensure success in the future, marketers must not be afraid to make mistakes and must be willing to experiment with new media.  The end goal is to discover what works best to reach your target market.  Learning this early on can position your business for long-term success in the digital advertising sphere.