|
|
Door To Door Marketing Vs Viral Campaigns
Many people seem to think that traditional promotional methods such as flyer distribution, leafleting and door to door marketing are dead, eschewed in favour of trendy viral video campaigns on YouTube, banners on this week's social networking site and expensive CGI-heavy adverts on the myriad of digital TV stations. However it is continually being proven that much of the time, the old methods simply work better.
There are examples of these modern methods working and working well, where several films and video games have had people talking about them for months, sometimes even a year before their release - the masterful ilovebees.com campaign for 2004 video game Halo 2 being a particular example; but while there are several notable cases of this style of marketing working spectacularly, there are many more instances of its failure.
Something that many business owners miss when deciding to forgo time-tested promotional methods such as door to door marketing and go in favour of the high-tech, high budget methods of the viral campaigns is their target audience. Successful viral campaigns tend to work because they are usually advertising video games or science fiction films and the demographic which plays these games and watches these films is usually quite tech-savvy and aware of current internet trends making the campaign more likely to reach them.
Door to door marketing methods including flyer or leaflet delivery are often far cheaper than these cutting edge campaigns and have the capability of reaching a broader audience. They are also more likely to reach your target demographic, unless you are looking to reach gamers or science fiction film fans.
The sad fact is that a lot of these more expensive, modern advertising methods simply do not reach their audience - many people change the channel or get up to make a cup of tea during the advert breaks on television, and more and more people daily are installing advertisement blocking software on their computers meaning that these expensive campaigns simply aren't being seen.
There is a lot to be said for these modern advertising methods, even if just from an academic case study perspective, but there is no denying their effectiveness if targeted correctly. However, it is very difficult to implement them successfully and to do so often requires the budget of a big Hollywood studio or Silicon Valley developer, whereas a door to door marketing campaign can be just as effective without requiring the budget and it is much harder to ignore a flyer or leaflet in a mailbox than it is to change the channel or install an advert blocker.
As entertaining as the viral campaign can be, the traditional methods are still very relevant to today's marketing climate and will most likely stay so for many years to come; often available for far less than you may expect and usually able to provide a much better return.
About the Author Thomas Pretty is a marketing executive with many years of experience implementing advertising campaigns. Find out more about door to door marketing at http://www.oakwoodstudios.com/
|
 |
Please Rate: |
|
Rating: |
 Processing ... |
(Average: Not rated) |
| Views: | 69 | |
|
| More Articles from Direct Mail | | |
| Top Articles in Direct Mail | | |
|
