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Advertising
dollars are actively searching for a place to go. With
the economy apparently on the upswing, consumer
confidence rising and media opportunities fragmenting,
advertisers face a large quandary over where to put
their messages. Marketing executives are finally
recognizing that throwing money at product launches
won’t make them fly. Instead, reaching consumers
effectively is increasingly important.
A recent
article in The Economist discussed the problems
marketers are facing (The Harder Hard Sell, June
24, 2004.) The magazine found that most consumers feel
bombarded with advertising and are avoiding it by
turning to new media and technologies.
At the same
time, media use is up, with subscriptions and other fees
paid by consumers to access content passing advertising
as media’s top revenue stream. A recent report by Price
Waterhouse Coopers (view
abstract) projects a compound annual revenue
growth rate of 6.3 percent over the next four years.
Much of that growth is expected to take place in
Internet and gaming – sectors that didn’t even exist a
decade ago.
Consumers
are gaining greater control over media consumption – for
example, they can get their news via television,
newspaper, radio or Internet. On the Web, they can
choose from traditional sources or from dozens of
quasi-news sites such as Web logs. Entertainment can
come from game consoles, DVDs, CDs, mp3s, movie
theaters, TV, radio, the Internet…and on and on.
So how do
marketers speak to the right people, with the right
message, at the right time? One way is to use a strong
and comprehensive public relations campaign. Articles
written by third parties about your company provide both
strong messaging and credibility to your target
audience.
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