It's always a bit of a shock when you stay in holiday cottage and realise that you have to watch TV without the wonders of Sky Plus at your disposal. Suddenly, you are back watching TV "old school" style and it's a bit of a shocker! You are forced to watch ads in real time, one after the other, which now, with our minds all tuned into the speed of our digital online world, seems interminable.
Within this incredibly slow context, imagine my surprise when I realised that one of these ads was from Facebook, illustrating the benefits of membership to its online club across the platform of traditional TV advertising. I have since spotted billboards ads for Facebook on the Tube and even print ads in the Metro newspaper.
And it made me think. How far have we really come in this online era if one of the main social media innovators realises that it still needs to use traditional marketing channels to reinforce its messages to its current members but, perhaps more importantly, to reach out to potential new audiences too?
I think what this really underlines is the importance of all marketing channels, from the traditional to the latest online trend, all working together within one coherent campaign. All the different elements within one marketing programme must dovetail together to target today's consumers and their increasingly disconnected consumption of media and marketing messages.
The truth is that everyone, from children to grandparents, accesses a wide range of media on a wide range of different devices – and one of these "devices" is still TV! In the same way that sometimes we assume that anyone in the 60-plus bracket will not be IT savvy, it is also dangerous to assume that younger consumers will not be sitting in front of a TV – although admittedly in my view it is more likely that they will be watching Sky Plus or Netflix!
I suppose the moral of this holiday viewing tale for me is to remember the importance of all media and marketing channels, from the traditional to the latest online platforms, when planning PR and marketing programmes. The importance of covering all bases in communications cannot be overstated. Blending both classic and digital communications platforms in the right way will undoubtedly ensure a very thorough reach to your target consumer and deliver great commercial objectives.
If you would like to discuss planning an on and offline marketing communication programmes for your business or organisation, we would love to hear from you. For an initial discussion contact myself or one of the team here at Westgate: Helen@westgatecomms.com