I STARTED my professional career in advertising as an account executive nearly 20 years ago - in the previous millennium and before the digital age.
As a consultant now, I find myself having to explain that I work in advertising, because what was called advertising is not considered advertising any more.
What is advertising today?
Advertising is paid communication through a medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled by the sponsor.
Any medium can be used to deliver messages: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, e-letters, posters, websites, mailers, shopping cards, billboards - anything and everything where an audience will be exposed to a paid message.
Advertising is the substitute for a personal sales force, an evolution of the merchant who cried out his wares.
Today's merchants can cry a lot louder and farther as they have access to an ever-growing number of advertising channels: branding, guerrilla marketing, product placement, public relations, event management, the Internet, word-of-mouth, direct, viral marketing... the list goes on and keeps growing.
With so many channels to choose from, the merchant's message may end in discord.
Working with ad agencies
Theoretically, a big agency network might be able to offer a truly unbiased 360-degree advertising solution.
But in reality, separate cost centres within the agency network make that very difficult.
Which account director would send his clients' billings to his internal competitor with the risk of not meeting his own budget at the end of the fiscal year?
Some of the new advertising channels are no longer controlled or managed by the advertising agency, but by a group of specialists in their field who claim not to provide advertising services, but purely the discipline they offer.
Clients do not have a choice but to work with several agencies if they want to make use of a wider media mix.
These agencies may not be talking to each other for competitive reasons, so the client not only needs to know his sales and marketing targets, but he also has to fulfil the function of an advertising expert to manage the different channels as one coherent advertising strategy.
Good old common sense
Given that your advertising budget is fixed, should you spread it thinner by using 25 instead of two ways to advertise?
On the other hand, you should not be limited to two communication channels if there are 25 appropriate ways.
The answer is still as simple or as complicated, depending how you look at it.
Advertising is a means to an end if you keep in mind what the end is - the closing of a sale with a happy customer who feels he has been understood and has got exactly what he was looking for, even if he had not been looking for it in the first place.
If you decide to use 25 ways, be sure you have enough money, knowledge and time to get it right for all 25. It is better to say nothing at all than the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place to your potential buyers.
Do not let yourself get distracted with all the different media channels available. You may not be missing out on anything if you are not using the latest fad in business communication technology.
Do as the merchant did. Stay focused and, very importantly, up-to-date on how you can bring your message across to your potential buyers and know exactly where, when and how to praise your wares to close that sale.
Article contributed by Elke Eskes-Frey, the founder of Rent-a-Suit Business Communication Consultants (www.rent-a-suit.biz) that specialises in business communication skills training and selling brands for clients. She has 17 years of experience in international advertising and communication, specialising in marketing communication and advertising strategies.
