Digital Advertising: “Targeted” Media versus “Relevant” Media

Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage

When it comes to Digital Signage Advertising;

Targeted media is great if it’s relevant to the mental buying state of a consumer.
Relevant Media (ads) are great if it’s targeted to the right audience.

The two are NOT intermixed or mutually exclusive. Tell me something - when does an advertiser know when or more importantly WHERE you’re ready to buy Tide or open to receiving messages about it? How about a Car? A Big Mac?

The short answer is, they don’t. That’s why advertising exists in the first place. There’s a lot of tried and true advertising theory that most people will not understand unless you spend time in the trenches of the advertising business, and even then, it can make your head spin. I’m an advertising theory “hobbyist” and it still makes me dizzy when you get really deep into media strategy planning - Not media planning, media strategy planning.

There are tons of critics and even more schools of thought around this topic but generally, the advertising industry has adopted several “methodologies” and they’re sticking with them. You can’t do a U turn in the Titanic. If your advertising play doesn’t fit into those models, I believe it will be relatively short in its lifespan or not achieve the numbers/revenue that it should or could because you’re hindering mass adoption.

Don’t get caught in the “Targeted” Trap if you own a network OR if you are a Brand. In my opinion, you’re missing the true intent of advertising. Purchasing patterns are changing and advertising needs to change with them.

For network operators, just because your Digital Screen media is “targeted” does not mean it’s relevant.

For Brands, just because your brand is on a targeted network, does not mean it’s relevant.

In the same breath, just because your ads are relevant, does not mean they are targeted/received properly.

I’m not going to get really deeply into this because this would be a 10 page blog post but, as an example:

Going beyond the “usual suspects” and major advertisers (Coke, Doritos, Auto, Telecommunications, etc), there’s a reason P&G does/might advertise products like Tide on Television during a Hockey Game. It’s not like you’d think it was targeted properly to the crowd that’s watching and the “relevance” at that time may not seem obvious but you have no idea if that guy/girl might need to pick it up on his/her way from the bar or if they’re going shopping tomorrow. Advertising is designed in such a way that a Brand wants their product to be the last competitive product in your mind before you go make your next purchase. You’re reminding them to take a chance on you (”the brand”) next time they ARE ready to purchase. The problem is they have no idea WHEN you might make this next purchase.

So in the above example, you have a smart ad in a non-targeted venue (for the product in question) which has great potential relevance. Scope is currently advertising heavily in a couple of bar washrooms around me for this “general” reason but Tide could be just as good. I think it’s a good play for them. The relevance is there in this case, but the targeting is not - at least not the way we interpret things cognitively.

I’m worried that both Networks and Brands are doing themselves a massive disservice by adopting this attitude of “targeting” alone because it fosters perpetual narrowing of media selection to get to the “A” list client. Basically, I think both sides of the equation are leaving sales on the table if they stick to an approach whereby nothing outside of a “zone” is comfortable. This is a conversation we have to have with the CFO, however.
TVs model isn’t wrong, it’s just broken - mainly due to technology, distraction and fragmentation. The principles are sound, however.

I realize that you can spin this a number of different ways but it would take me forever to write out all of the background with metrics, etc to prove it to you. All I’m saying is maybe it’s worth backing off the measurement stick just a little so we can all get back to business and start making some money.

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