Is Digital Still A Step Child?
Some people believe that digital advertising is a whole different arena when it comes to marketing and advertising. Some awards companies have even come up with a digital advertising agency award separate from any other kind of advertising agency not digital based. This thinking comes from the idea that the digital market is completely separate from any other type of marketing or advertising. However, that really should not be the case. Digital marketing is run a little differently from more traditional advertising methods, but it is similar enough to be categorized under the same species. It is a different channel of advertising, not its own arena.
The idea that the digital advertising market is like public relations advertising, or direct marketing is flawed. The digital market is just a different tool for technologies that have been around for a long time. Some people believe that the digital market is a large enough field to be considered its own market but that should not be the case. The digital field is just another advertising venue like television, radio and printed materials.
Many of the strategies used for digital marketing are not “new” strategies, but rather reformulated ideas from older marketing methods. Social marketing falls under the category of public relations marketing. Making brand-driven websites is more of a brand agency advertising method. Promoting online sales is part of the direct marketing field. These are just examples of ways that digital marketing is only borrowing and modifying advertising traditions that have existed for hundreds of years. Digital advertising is not new; it just has a new coat.
The digital advertising market is very popular right now. Most advertising agencies are advising clients to put a large portion of their advertising budget into online advertising. But to counsel someone to put all of their advertising into digital advertising would be doing them a disservice. While the digital world is an important piece to the marketing world, it is not the whole pie.
Some completely online retailers also conduct offline advertising. This just makes sense. EBay grew much more popular when they started their television campaigns. The shoe store Zappos advertised on billboard style advertisements, and also was mentioned numerous times in different television shows.
One of the main allures of digital marketing is the price. The cost of online marketing is very low, which means that more advertising can be purchased for the same amount of money that would buy a lot less space in another medium. However, the difference between advertising and producing a sale can be quite large when digital advertising is used.
The digital field is very large. One of the reasons it’s so popular right now is because of the downsizing economy. People who once would have seen other advertising mediums such as cable television and magazines may be eliminating that extra expense from their lives. This means that more people will be online more often and have a greater chance of seeing the online advertisements. However, just as many people may be eliminating their Internet, so there is no one place that advertising can occur and produce the same results as a company that advertises in many different places.
Digital marketing is a niche market. This means that it comes under the direct marketing field. The same rules that apply to other direct marketing fields should also apply to the digital market.
The digital market is a great advertising resource. However, if they do not start opening up to other forms of advertising and marketing their popular reign in the marketing world will be very limited.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 11:15 am and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.