Is Traditional Media Still Important?
Welcome to Broker Roundtable, where each week we ask list brokers to give their opinions on issues that matter to the marketing community. This week's question: As online and mobile media continue to grow, are traditional media like package inserts, statement stuffers, door hangars and the like still important name sources?
Our panel includes Don Eaker of Nexxa Group Inc., Leland Kroll of Kroll Direct Marketing and Shawn R. Salta of DirectMail.com. Would you like to be considered to be a member of our roundtable? Contact Larry Riggs ([email protected]).
Don Eaker, national director of sales, Nexxa Group Inc.:
We as an industry are, in essence, doing the same thing we were doing when the business took off after World War II. We're trying to present an offer to a person or household that is targeted and relevant, to get them to take action. Old school tactics are still effective, as long as they are relevant in terms of reaching a particular audience. Here's a question: Would you want to reach a young, mobile, online audience with statement stuffers? Certainly not, they generally are using online transactions for bills. But, what about the 50-something household that just never caught on to the computer as an appliance, and pay all their bills by check? Wouldn't statement stuffers be relevant in that case? Or take a local pizza joint that doesn't have a website for ordering online, but is in a dense urban area. Wouldn't a local-radius door hanger campaign be more effective than Google keywords? So, at the end of the day, these sources are still valuable, used effectively with the proper demographics and campaign.
Leland Kroll, president, Kroll Direct Marketing Inc.:
With the growth of online and mobile marketing, traditional and alternative media opportunities certainly continue to have an important place as viable marketing solutions. Not every business or professional located on main street can take advantage of the new media opportunities and marketing channels available today Costs and minimums are a major factor on the limiting of these sexy marketing tools. Traditional media can certainly be relevant and practical for direct marketers that need to utilize these "blanket" geo directed and implied endorsement marketing vehicles. As long as there are media owners able to offer these alternative media products at reasonable cost, they will continue to be utilized. Alternative media communications should now be tailored to direct a consumer to visit a website and register their contact information or to text a short code in order to receive a text message offering valuable discounts. I feel that it is the integration of multiple channels that will solidify the use of these tried and true marketing tools.
Shawn R. Salta, vice president, DirectMail.com:
Traditional media including package inserts are evolving to improve value and targeting opportunities. More insert/ride-along programs now offer the ability to segment by purchase history or geographic region. As long as the traditional media continue to allow and grow methods for relevancy of messaging and targeting, they will continue to be a viable channel. Some of these opportunities offer access to very specialized audiences that are not made available or directly accessible in any other way.
As marketers cost is only relevant to the cost of the response. As long as these channels continue to provide a reasonable return they should stay in your media mix.
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