Are You “Advertising” Or “Communicating?”
You’ll hear people talk about how advertising is dead. You’ll also hear other people scream that advertising is alive and well.
Most people may fall somewhere in between.
Make no mistake, advertising will continue to try to permeate the barrier between consumer and their mind. Some advertisers rely on tricks, they rely on gimmicks. This is a vestige of an earlier time when broadcast was king, queen and court jester. In some cases, all this does is makes the consumer cringe or worse, make them ignore you.
We’ve heard stories about how some local advertisers didn’t really care what kind of reaction they got, as long as there was a reaction of some kind. This seems to be highly counter-productive. Part of building an audience and loyalty is likability. Good advertisers bake that in to the equation by constantly asking themselves, “will consumers ‘like’ us if we put this on the air.”
Even better advertisers don’t really even think of themselves as “advertisers.” They think of themselves as good “communicators.” They know that advertising is one part of the puzzle but having an overall view of “communication” tends to take companies and businesses into better territory. Yes, advertising is changing, but communication (and good communication) will never go out of style.
There is one company based here that is doing just that: Nike. You may not be seeing as many Nike TV commercials as in the past. Part of the reason is that a vast majority of their conversation and communication lives online now. This is where the people are and this is where they respond. This isn’t to say that the company has abandoned advertising — in fact, far from it. But, Nike has always been masterful at communicating its brand, its identity and its essence.
Even smaller businesses and companies can learn from this. There is “advertising” but the more effective approach to creating something truly special is through the discipline of constant, effective communication — no matter where it lives.
Tags: advertising, blog, media, run spot run, social media
