The Medium Is the Message

Building an effective online ad program

by Bill Koch, Editor of definingINSIGHTS, speaks with James Marlow,
Director of Sales for Yahoo!

During last year’s presidential election, the Museum of Broadcast History hosted a retrospective of TV commercial campaigns on its website. Taking a look at the first TV ads from 1952 is like taking a trip back in time to another century. Well, technically it is, but you get the idea.

One of Dwight Eisenhower’s 1952 ads simply shows cartoon characters marching with signs and singing the catchy song, “I Like Ike.” It’s rudimentary and almost condescending for those of us who have lived through (or studied) the infamous anti-Barry Goldwater “Daisy” ad from 1964 or even Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” from 1984.

Two decades later, online advertising continues to take quantum leaps forward, only faster. What worked in 1995, or even five years ago, certainly won’t grab much attention today. How can your company get the most out of its ad dollars in an online campaign? What strategies must be adapted — or entirely different — when considering an online campaign vs. a traditional print media campaign?

Hitting the target

After a few minutes of chatting with James Marlow, director of sales for Yahoo, one word keeps popping up over and over – “target.”

“Online advertising is all about engaging your audience,” Marlow says. “In order to connect with prospects, you have to target your ads to the specific group of consumers you want to reach.”

This is a big departure from print media, where you want to grab the attention of as many consumers as possible with an ad that has broad reach. Marlow sees online advertising as “conditional advertising.”

“It’s much more than simple communication,” Marlow says. “You have to engage your customer with relevant information.”

In past campaigns, Marlow has worked with heavy-hitters like Phillips and Georgia Pacific to hit just the consumers that these clients wanted to reach. “Yahoo and Phillips were a perfect match,” Marlow says. “They sell high-end electronics on the cutting edge. Yahoo users are early-adapters, and many of them are ‘alpha’ consumers, which means they will try new technology first and then tell their friends about it.”

To sell specific Phillips products, Marlow worked with Phillips to place ads where the appropriate Yahoo users would find them. “Phillips wanted to market their new Streamium product, which is a computer-controlled boom box. We placed highly interactive ads in Yahoo music, where high-tech music listeners and downloaders visit frequently.”

Targeting ads and resources also works well when companies are trying to gauge consumer interest. “Georgia Pacific wanted to reach high-income consumers in three specific cities,” Marlow explains. “By matching Yahoo users in certain zip codes with well-placed Georgia Pacific ads, we brought those consumers to the client in record time.”

Three steps to a happy engagement

New media forms and new consumer habits have consistently created a need to recreate the modern ad campaign. How can you build the 21^st century equivalent of Burma Shave signs?

“It’s not easy,” Marlow admits. “Consider this. We recently did a study called ‘Born to Be Wired’ to better understand how teenagers multitask while they are online. Our study found many teens do seven or more things while they are online: any combination of browsing websites, doing their homework, listening to music, burning CDs (or loading MP3s onto an MP3 player), watching TV, instant messaging, eating and talking on the phone.”

How do you get a foot in the door of that consciousness? Marlow says every good online campaign includes three elements to engage customers.

“First, the ad is relevant,” Marlow explains. “The ad is targeted to that person’s age group, gender, geographic location, income level and technical aptitude. If you advertise online, you can easily create slightly different ads — or very different ads — that appeal to different demographics, all as part of the same campaign.

“The second element is ad placement,” Marlow says. “Think of the Phillips campaign. To sell their new music product, we placed ads in an area of high-tech music listeners. Placement is crucial to attract the right customer.”

Marlow says the next element is the call to action. “What do you want the consumers to do after they see your ad?” Marlow asks. “Should they want more information or should they be ready to buy? Structure your ad so the logical next step is just as engaging as the ad itself.”

Some companies use flash video or downloads to keep the consumer interested in the product. “Once you have your targeted consumers hooked,” Marlow says, “Don’t let them go. An engaging ad is great, but it’s only a pathway to getting your consumers more involved in your products.”

Becoming a research fanatic

Now that you know what keeps customers engaged, how do you engage them in the first place? What is the crucial difference between online marketing and other forms of advertising?

“At Yahoo,” Marlow says, “we are research fanatics. We study our users to understand what brings them online, what patterns they follow when they are online and what interests them in online content.”

This research pays huge dividends when it comes time to build an online campaign. “We take the information and design ads that target specific users — at different stages during their online day.”

Marlow works with companies to develop placement- and user-sensitive ads. “We display different ads when users enter Yahoo mail, when they compose mail and when they leave Yahoo mail. These distinct tasks all require a different level of concentration and a different mindset. We create ads that engage your customer in different ways at those different times.”

The importance of integration

The promise of online marketing lies in its ability to target consumers with precision and also provide immediate feedback on how well the ads engage potential customers. None of this can happen without a tight integration of all the elements that go into a great campaign.

“In a traditional print or mass media campaign,” says Ian Joyce, vice president of marketing for Definition 6, “different marketing partners would handle the feedback, the creative aspect, buying ad space or ad time. An online campaign is very different.”

Because of the immediacy of the medium, and the potential for real-time feedback, having all of these elements integrated and managed by the same partners really takes advantage of the nature of online media. “The beauty of an online campaign is that you can change most of the big elements almost instantly,” Joyce says. “If an ad isn’t getting the right response, you can change some of the creative. You can place the ads in a different area of a site. You can do any of this very quickly based upon the feedback you receive.”

Having the ability for nimble responses means that you can change your big picture strategy as your feedback or your changing goals dictate. “Your campaign can change as quickly as you want it to change,” Joyce says, “but in order to do that, your campaign must be managed by a tightly integrated team of experts.”

Beyond mass media

There will always be a place for broad-based, mass media advertising. Yet Marlow feels online marketing will continue to grow and innovate because of the targeted nature of the media buys that are possible.

“I think of it as ‘mass media’ versus ‘my media,’” Marlow says. “Mass media allows you to hit a broad audience. But if you are advertising specifically to women, for example, your targeted ad may be lost on men. Online advertising allows you to hit the specific mark every time.”

Online advertising also lets you take your customers to the next logical step. Marlowe explains, “If you see a TV ad for a cool new product, you still have to get off the couch, go to a store and buy it. With an online ad, you can make the purchase within a minute or two.”

If you keep the components of your campaign tightly integrated and ready to respond to feedback, you can create an online campaign that will attract the attention — and dollars — of your most cherished customers. You might not elect the next president, but you could grab the attention of a generation of multitasking teenagers.

And really, what’s more important?