"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative," David Ogilvy said in the 60s.
He also said: "The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife." This might still ring true today but only with the inclusion of husbands, friends, and smartphone algos.
Be it as it may, the golden days of Mad Men are long past.
In 2024, a brand can't just cover the prime advertising spots across the city in large billboards and watch their sales curve skip skywards.
Getting people's attention has become more difficult. (Yet not necessarily more expensive.)
Instead of a few conglomerates vying for consumer's pennies, we now live in a media world of millions of tiny atoms, each getting their tiny morsel of the attention pie.
And as a consumer, you rarely only pay with your wallet anymore. The modern-day currency is your attention, time, and data.
So what should the advertisers' slogan be in 2024?
In fact, Ogilvy's "If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative" still applies. It's just that the mediums for expressing that creativity have changed.
In the 2010s, when there were new products and brands popping up like mushrooms after rain, there were many accessible, quick-win marketing channels. SEO was still medium-competitive and a considerable acquisition channel to build up in 3-6 months' time. Paid social ads (Facebook) still had a reasonable ROAS (return on ad spend).
For many marketers, what worked in 2015 has stopped working in 2024.
So where are we headed? What to focus on?
Welcome to the attention economy
As I wrote in my 2024 marketing trends overview, there's a backward shift from performance to brand marketing.
For the past decade or two, mere money could buy new customers. It's become too expensive for most brands now.
With money (mostly) in the background, creativity is back in the game. And this creativity must be channelled into getting people's attention.
Recently, I was speaking to a cultural magazine that I advise pro bono. Here's what I told them: It's not about paying subscribers, it's about getting anyone to read the content at all.
The media landscape has become incredibly competitive.
You're not competing against direct competitors but YouTube and Netflix and TikTok. A difficult battle to win...
So how, if at all, can one win that game?
Below are three different approaches that I invite you to consider.
Each approach aims to grow your follower base as a brand, and once you have people's attention, to convert that attention into sales.
1. Do things that don't scale
I used to only work with the marketing channels that are easy to scale: SEO, digital ads, forms of social media.
In the past 2-3 years when working with (mostly tech) companies, I've noticed that it's become much harder to acquire customers with just digital advertising and a few unstrategic blog articles.
In 2024, it's time to reconsider the more niche marketing channels and activities, e.g. newsletters, social media content creators, out-of-home marketing, Reddit, PR stunts, highly-targeted YouTube and TV ads, etc.
How to apply this in your company:
Every three months, do a marketing experiment with a low budget but top-notch creative input. Try to achieve social media virality or uncover a niche marketing channel that delivers (at least 10%) of one month's results at a good ROI.
2. Aim for viral potential
Quite the opposite of the last point: marketers facing the most competitive social media landscape also have the highest potential target audience.
Instead of posting 5 zero-engagement Instagram feed posts every week, aim to nail that one Reels video per month and attain 200,000+ reach.
Remember... "If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative." You really do need to get out of your comfort zone to get that viral content. Creating high-reach videos takes time – this isn't something you can ask ChatGPT to figure out for you.
Alternatively, you can hire some content creators with a proven track record of creating high-reach videos.
How to apply this in your company:
Make it your marketing team's task to create one viral social media post in the next 30 days. Understand that they'll need time and resources to make this happen. If you have more budget, hire content creators and give them the same task.
3. Dig into a niche
Instead of trying to please everyone, go niche.
Figure out a few granular target audiences and create landing pages / packaging / ad creatives that specifically speak to them.
In some instances, going niche can also mean targeting specific countries and creating content in the local language, as well as translating your website.
At Bolt, we often hired local marketing managers or ops people who knew about the particularities of the market – the local habits, customs, and culture.
In B2B marketing, niche can even mean targeting some specific companies, say with LinkedIn Lead ads.
How to apply this in your company:
Figure out a niche target audience that your product is relevant for. Next, figure out the best marketing messages and creatives, as well as the channels to reach that audience. Try running a more targeted campaign than you'd usually do and see if you get your chosen audience to convert at lower costs and higher conversion rates.
Of course, do all of it once you've finished bingeing on Mad Men for the 5th time.
Merci! 🐿️
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Thanks for reading!
Karola