How Do Dinosaurs Survive and Thrive in a Digital Age?
By Eric Groves
When it comes to marketing and advertising , I’m somewhat of a dinosaur.
Okay, not “somewhat” – I am a full-fledged Triceratops. I’ve been around since the days of rubylith and stat-cameras (Google them, I won’t bother explaining). Heck, I was cutting my teeth in the wonderful world of advertising when phones had curly cords on them!
When I got started in my career in the late 80’s, the choices for clients to advertise consisted of “The Big 4”: print, TV, radio and outdoor. It was pretty simple looking back, but, my, how times have changed!
Somewhere around 1995, (thanks to Al Gore) the advertising landscape cosmically shifted as a new player raised its digital head – the Internet. Fast forward to 2014 and businesses are now faced with a dizzying number of choices for how and where to spend their advertising dollars. In addition to The Big 4, any business competing in the digital age must consider how to navigate the Internet’s pixel-filled waters.
The very notion of it can be overwhelming. Google, SEO, Facebook, Twitter, Hubspot, Pay-Per-Click, Like, Share, Instagram, Digg, Yelp, Blogs, Pinterest, YouTube, Banner Ads, Constant Contact, etc… it’s enough to make your head spin! And the landscape changes quicker than Taylor Swift swaps out boyfriends.
So how do you survive and thrive in this digital age? Jump in the water, but find a good swimming instructor!
You’re going to need a firm that possesses three main qualities:
- A thorough understanding of the multitude of online tools available and how they connect with one another
- The ability to analyze your business goals and objectives and put together a strategy that works
- High creativity that will translate into content and advertising that breaks through the online clutter (not an easy task!). In that regard, nothing has changed since the days of the Big 4 – no matter what the medium, if the content you’re putting out there is uninspired and boring, the results will be poor.
Scientists aren’t sure exactly what caused all of the real dinosaurs to die off, but pixel deficiency will definitely be the death sentence for hordes of businesses that are hesitating or refusing to swim in the digital waters. So, go ahead – jump in! – it’s not as scary as you might think.
Top image from Flickr user shvmoz.
