In Defense of the Humans

When we leave computers to fully manage the distribution of our digital advertising, we run the risk of creating something like this horribly ironic ad on Yahoo where a speeding Volkswagen drives over the touching faces of a race car driver who recently died in a crash and his widowed wife. (see below)

The point of this very brief post is that while we can allow our campaigns to run automatically without supervision, human beings need to maintain enough awareness that they can ask their media outlet questions like "how do I keep my cool animation from circling around an article about a 15-car wreck?" I may sound crazy in assuming that it's possible to foresee all the negative ad/news combos out there but let me say 2 things:

First, Millions of dollars are being spent to track our every click and target our ads. Some of that research and programming money could go into eliminating the possible contradictory ad/news combos, resulting in an even more refined ad placement. With the bonus of not having your dealership boycotted by certain auto-racing fanatics.

Second, print publications have been doing this for years. When I worked at the newspaper, airline and liquor ads were flagged as possible conflicts and were pulled if there was news of an airline disaster or drunk driving accident. Copy editors and proofreaders also know to scan the ads prior to print and move inappropriate ads.

Finally, computers rock. Data-driven marketing has made us so much better at finding and talking to the right people. As marketers, we just need to be aware of what we are doing and keep our minds working, asking "what if" every time we make a decision about where a campaign is going to run. 

Direct Marketing is Your Friend.

Direct marketers have a bad reputation as "junk mailers" and more recently "spammers". And to be fair, as an industry we bring it upon ourselves. When we succumb to the VP who constantly wants to send out more and more communications, we stuff inboxes full of unexpected, unwanted "junk" causing disdain and associating the brand with the money-grubbing nuisances that we are. Hey, just callin' it as I see it.

On the other hand ...

There are, on the other hand, direct marketers who have it right. Those wise marketers that make an effort to connect on a one-to-one basis. Those companies and agencies that spend as much time getting to know their current customers as they do finding new ones. Those advertisers are the friends of the people, the champions of real customer relationships, no matter whether their list is in the hundreds or the hundreds of thousands.

That's what this weekly blog is intended to be about. Observations about how some marketers are getting it right and how others are missing the mark. Tips on stepping back and taking in the broader picture of how the lifecycle of good direct strategies never ends, it just builds upon itself. If you have any questions about how to make your direct marketing better, or if you have an example that you'd like to share, please drop me an email.