What's next in Advertising?

Between TV, Cable TV, YouTube, iPods, Radio, Satellite Radio, Netflix, iTunes… there is no longer a central place to reach people with an advertising message. Everyone is splintered, everything is niche. So what do you think is the most effective way – or what do you think will be the most effective way - of getting people to know about a product if everyone is everywhere? The Long Answers:

"I believe contextual advertising, sponsorships and innovative out-of-home will ultimately prove to be the most successful. You cannot ignore out-of-home the way you can other media types, and event sponsorship, product placement, etc. ties the brand in with something else (concert series for example) that the consumer is clearly interested in, eliminating impressions waste and maximizing impact." - Jason Baer

"Successful marketers will get to know their customers better — and thus their media habits and preferences — in order to deliver messages to the media outlets most likely to reach them. This process of getting to know their customers better and even segmenting them by purchase motivations and lifestyle (psychographics) will also help marketers develop messages that are more relevant, so they can be more effective than in times past when general messages were delivered through mass media." - Paige Chadwick

"Receipts at the checkout line are becoming a defacto marketing vehicle for nearly every retailer and we all buy “stuff” so I’m assuming this will be the way to reach masses of people. At Target this week I purchased one item and received three receipts with my razor blades inviting me to sign up for their credit card and to save $1 on Pepperidge Farm Cookies. At the grocery store it is even worse because they aren’t even coupons, just messages that remind me to donate money to a specific charity.
"Perhaps the next Harry Potter movie ad will be printed on my gas station receipt!" Carol Klimas

"It seems like devices that people interact with the most, like mp3 players and phones, will provide the best likelihood for exposure. It also seems that their opt-in nature, and splintering across other mediums, will mean that successful advertising will require in-depth targeting and behavioral research to ensure companies are speaking to their targets in a manner that their targets want to consume the information." - Mike Corak

"I figure we have come full circle and will soon welcome the town crier back into civilization. Just imagine seeing a person walking down the street drinking a Coke and expounding on the delicious refreshment it is providing for all to hear loud and clear." - Brian Alig

"Simple: Make compelling products. "We’re bombarded by advertising in every single place you can imagine, but that advertising doesn’t usually make a dent with me because 99.9% of those products aren’t worth my time, and I know it. Take the first Zune.. They had a nifty viral campaign and other cool things going on, but at the end of the day the product itself didn’t hold a candle to the iPod it was trying to replace. No amount or variety of advertising was going to change the fact the product itself wasn’t compelling. "There are so many different products in any given category that the only real way to send a message is to be best-in-class. Advertising might get a few people to your store, but if I pick up your product and there’s no “wow,” what’s the point? "I’m with Stephen Colbert on this one: the free market will decide, and I think surgical advertising and kick-ass product will win over so-so product and an infinite advertising budget any day of the week. It doesn’t matter where you’re advertising so much as what you’re advertising. Perhaps this means we’ll start seeing more products that don’t try to do everything, and instead try to be really good at a subset of functions. Win people over with your product, and they’ll tell their friends. "If you’re a new player the same principle applies. You only need to convince a subset of your goal customer base to buy your product if the product works so well they won’t be able to stop themselves from spreading the word." - Joseph Jaramillo

And the Short Answers:

"Media train God and then organize his media tour! :)" - Laura Hall

"Cell phones are ubiquitous; mobile messaging will take over." - Juan Lesmes

"Cell phones..." - Paul Peterson

"word of mouth" - Megan Phipps

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)