So Many Media Choices

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tue, 02/21/2012

I went out to my drive way today to pick up my daily paper and noticed that about half of the houses on my street had a daily on their drive way too. When I opened my mail box later in the day I found three direct mail pieces amongst the letters. When I received the new channel line-up from our cable provider last month, I noticed there are now more than 200 channels from which to choose...

While digital, mobile, social and other new media keep growing and entering the market, the more traditional media just don’t go away. There’s always cause and effect in changing landscapes. In this case, the landscape just keeps growing. The effect is that each piece of the market each media hold, keeps shrinking by the minute.

Ultimately, the effect is that it takes more media planning to make more accurate choices. It also means that each piece of the pie is more targeted, making your choices bulls-eyes rather than shot guns. So more planning up front leads to better results later. My advice would be to not make judgment of media choice too quickly, and to not feel that traditional media is not part of the marketing equation for your company or your client.

Newspaper, Radio, Television, Direct Mail, Digital, Mobile, Event Marketing, Cause Marketing, Sports marketing, Experiential marketing, Sales Promotions-and this is only the beginning! Don’t get overwhelmed. Take it in stride, one media at a time. Test. Re-test. Tweak. And do it all over again. The media choices are great in numbers and the results you obtain can be even greater.

What are your challenges when it comes to media planning? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time …