AMiable Solution #81: The Magic of Air

Some traditions just can’t be overlooked, no matter how much technology tries to overshadow them.  Walking around the block offers health benefits that driving around the block doesn’t.  Painting a portrait by hand creates a personal, unique image that an automated computer program can’t match.

And good, old-fashioned broadcast marketing--advertising on the air--still reaches a broad, responsive market, despite the popularity of mobile and Internet marketing.

What it is: Radio and television commercials.

How it got started: The first radio commercial aired in 1922 on a radio station owned by AT&T.  AT&T thought of radio as a sort of public phone booth: anyone could pay for air time.  On that August day, a paid commercial for Hawthorne Court Apartments in Jackson Heights, New York, hit the air.

The first television ad followed suite nearly 20 years later, in 1941, with a 10-second spot by watch maker Bulova before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies.  The ad cost $9.

Why it still works: Despite all of our technology, television and radio still have large audiences.  According to Nielsen--the company that tracks what consumers watch, listen to, and buy--243 million Americans listen to the radio each week, and the average American spends 34 hours a week watching television and another three to six hours watching DVRed programs.

The market for both mediums is wide open.  Neilsen reports that all generations have radio listener bases of more than 85%, and weekly viewership among 2- through 24-year olds is relatively steady but nearly doubles in terms of hours-per-week for people age 65 and over.

Despite their success, however, television and radio are not financially feasible options for all organizations.  Next week’s focus, however, is.  Check back to see what it is and how you can take advantage of it.

AMiable Solution #80: The Math of Ads

With the holiday seasons approaching, now seems like the perfect time to examine something we all experience in our personal and professional lives: traditions.

When it comes to marketing traditions, historically there have been four: print ads, broadcast ads, direct mail, and telephone solicitations.  But are marketing traditions still effective, or are they ornamental, like last year’s fruit cake?  Let’s look at print ads. 

What they are: Ads placed in newspapers, magazines, telephone books, and other distributed, printed publications in exchange for a fee. 

How they got started: According to Ad Age, the first newspaper advertisement appeared in the Boston News-Letter in 1704.  The first American magazine ads appeared 38 years later, in 1742, when Benjamin Franklin printed them in his publication, General Magazine.  It would be more than 100 years later before advertising makers established industry footholds (the first ad agency didn’t open until 1843).

Why they still work:  Although more and more people use the Internet to get their news, view their publications of choice, and look up phone numbers, print advertising still has a place in today’s marketing plans. Print advertising is still a big business, generating nearly $30 billion in ad revenue every year.

For starters, print ads provide physical, retainable exposure to a targeted audience.  The demographics for most publications are clearly defined. 

In addition, marketers can not only target their audience with print ads, but they can also target the placement of their ads within the publication, maximizing their ad’s exposure.

AMiable Solution #79: Five Fun Fall Facts About Email Marketing

In the spirit of this month’s lighter look at marketing, we offer the following five fun facts about email marketing and fall:

1.  E-mail usage by 18-24 year olds decreased by 34% in 2011, which is bad news for some marketers.  The good news for all of us, however, is that Daylight Savings Time—which ends this weekend—increases our well-being.  It’s credited with preventing traffic injuries and reducing crime.

2.  Marketers will have more success sending carefully crafted emails this November than farmers and grocers will have selling fresh turkeys: 47% of people say they open email based on the subject line, but only 24% buy fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving (the rest buy frozen).

3.  In 2012, emails sent on Tuesdays had higher open rates than any other day of the week.  Think that’s a narrow window of opportunity?  Try being a pumpkin farmer.  They have 80% of the pumpkin supply in the United States available in October.

4. This year, about 84% of all email traffic will be spam.  Sound like spam has the ultimate upper hand?  While it’s impressive (in size, not effect), the state of Illinois has it beat.  Illinois grows between 90 and 95% of the processed pumpkins in the United States.

5.  By 2016, there will be an estimated 4.3 billion email accounts.  That’s equivalent to roughly one-third the average viewership of this year’s World Series through Game 3.

AMiable Solution #78: Five Fun Fall Facts About Web Marketing

Last week we looked at direct mail facts as they relate to some of fall’s finer activities.  This week, we see how web marketing fares against seasonal subjects:

1.  Seventy percent of business-to-business marketers surveyed said that they planned to increase spending on websites this year.  They’re not the only ones spending more.  Halloween spending is already up by about 11% compared to last year, and spending for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas is also expected to increase by at least 11%.

2.  Content creation is expected to increase by 15.1% in 2013 as marketers and organizations continue to realize the value of added value.  Turkey production, by comparison, has increased by 110% since 1970 as more and more people recognize turkey’s value for every day meals, not just holidays.

3.   Successful websites need good roots.  Unfortunately, 50% of ecommerce sites don’t have them: they ask for the same information more than once, adding needless friction in the checkout experience. Corn stalks, on the other hand, have excellent roots: a healthy corn plant can grow as tall as five to 12 feet above ground and up to 6.5 feet below ground.

4.  Interesting content is one of the top three reasons people follow brands on social media.  A fork was not one of the three utensils used by the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving.  They had only knives, spoons, and their fingers.

5.  More Americans (approximately 85%) use the Internet than hand out candy at Halloween (75%).

AMiable Solution #77: Five Fun Fall Facts About Direct Mail

You know direct mail and you know marketing, but you may not know them as they relate to some of this season’s lighter subjects.  Read on to discover five fun fall facts and how they relate to direct mail.

1.  Forty-six percent of parents surveyed prefer to receive back-to-school promotions in the form of direct mail (second only to print ads, 46%).  However, 26% of them will wait until their kids go to bed or to school before sneaking a sweet from their kids’ trick-or-treat stash.

2.  The U.S. Postal Service processes an average of 6,100 pieces of mail every second.  In terms of quantity, that’s the equivalent of 161 of the 26.50-ounce size “big bags” of Fun Size Snickers.

3.  The Postal Service’s proposed price increases for 2014 could generate $2 billion in incremental new revenue.  Candy sales for Halloween alone are expected to reach $2.08 billion this year.

4.  There are more letter carriers that deliver mail entirely on foot (7,753) in the U.S. than apple producers (approximately 7,500).

5.  The USPS mailed an average of 692 million pounds of standard mail a month in 2012.  That’s more weight than Illinois--one of the country’s top four pumpkin producers--grew in pumpkins in all of 2008 (496 million pounds).