Blurring the Lines of Ad Sales
Print, Internet, Events, Broadcast media — these are some of the areas that today’s advertising sales personnel need understand.There is a term floating around among advertising and marketing departments these days called Integration.
According to the dictionary, to integrate is “To make into a whole by bringing all parts together; to unify.”
Seems self explanatory… right?
There is no questioning the fact that today’s marketing personnel are focused on this idea, and with good reason. Reaching one’s consumers is an increasingly complex process that potentially involves many individual parts.
It’s safe to assume that most marketers want to keep and succeed at their jobs. So, with that in mind let’s look at the problem from their angle.
Not too long ago marketers could reach customers through print or broadcast media. Television and radio were primarily entertainment oriented and deep, comprehensive information analysis was relegated to print.
Consequently, business-to-business advertisers knew that if you wanted to reach business consumers your options were primarily concentrated in the print media category.
On the other hand, business-to-consumer advertisers learned that one of the best ways to reach their customers was by marketing in the places where they got their leisure or entertainment, aka radio and television.
But as we all know, at the beginning of the twenty-second century that model began to change. Overnight the Internet grew, cable broadcasting blossomed offering choice and diversity, broadband communication opened the door for instant news / instant information, desk top publishing became a hot new industry with targeted publications popping up everywhere, e-mail became a standard form of communication, buses and trucks began to offer advertising opportunities and the list goes on.
Suddenly, marketers were faced with a complex and growing problem. How best were they to reach their customers? Which were to be the optimal mediums for insuring the highest returns?
In an attempt to cut down on the risk, marketers did something similar to investors on Wall Street, they created as it were an advertising mutual fund. The goal became to develop a marketing portfolio that would pick individual elements based on their probability for high return and low risk. Thus, marketers were able to protect their customers and their jobs by providing a consistent return on investment.
The advantages or disadvantages of this method of marketing remains a subject for some other time. However, as it relates to print ad sales personnel the implications are important.
Anyone who has sold print advertising for even a short time will likely concur that marketers are interested in options. Beyond run of press ads they want to know if you offer on-line advertising, e-mail advertising, list rental, event sponsorships and more. In short, they want to know how many ways you can help them successfully reach their customers. The print advertising sales person’s traditional boundary then blurs into new territories. As a result, to be successful in print advertising sales you must deepen your understanding and knowledge of what assets can be made available to your marketers. You must create a company wide portfolio or mix of marketing options that allow companies to diversify their risk and increase potential returns.
In short, the print advertising sales persons who will succeed at generating strong growing ad revenue in the days to come will be those that understand their customers needs and educate themselves with the knowledge, understanding and the skills to meet them. -PA-
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