In the midst of launching Caerus Digital Media, something alarming came to light: my own wife doesn’t know what I do! Nor does my mum, at least three friends, and possibly even you? Well, if so, your secret’s safe with me. A couple of minutes of your time is all I need to tell you what I do.
You could think of the world of advertising as split into two. On one side is the traditional advertising, or creative agencies. In a nutshell, they’re the guys that design the ads you see on TV, online or on the roadsides. They tell the stories, come up with the engaging copy and make sure it looks great. On the other side are the media agencies. It’s those guys who make sure the ads get seen by the right people. There’s no point in advertisers spending all that money on a great looking ad if it’s not going to be seen by the people who are likely to buy the product. For example, you wouldn’t (at least you really shouldn’t), see an ad for a big gas-guzzling Range Rover in an environmental magazine or website. But that’s me - I’ve spent the last 13 years of my career working at media agencies, and taking care of some of the world’s top brands - BMW, MINI, L’Oreal and Danone to name a few.
Hopefully it’s starting to come a little bit clearer? If you’ve read this far, great! Let me tell you now a little about digital media. Back in the day, advertisers used to tell the world about their product through big broadcasting vehicles such as television or radio. They still do - they’re an extremely effective way to tell large volumes of people about a product. But they can also be highly inefficient with a huge amount of waste - i.e. people who aren’t going to be interested in your product. Range Rover could buy a spot during the ad break in the Champions League Final, but for every one person who sees the ad that is a potential Range Rover buyer, there will be countless people who will not be. That’s the waste, and advertisers increasingly, understandably want to reduce the waste, and get a better return for their advertising investment. Which is where digital, and digital media agencies come in.
The advent of the Internet meant brands could advertise on websites where only their target market would be - for example, Range Rover could advertise on the websites of Auto Trader, What Car etc. Of course, search engines (remember Ask Jeeves?) soon started popping up where advertisers could reach out to an audience who had raised their hands as to being interested in a product or brand. The 2010s saw a boom in ad spend on the social media networks due to advancement in targeting capabilities, and the opportunity to set different objectives to meet varying marketing goals and to display ads to a highly engaged audience.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to tell you the basics of the different digital marketing channels, starting with paid social. Hope to see you then!
Hugs
Alexis x