The Media Mix Conspiracy
by Do you think that you need to advertise in many different places to be effective? Media Mix is for people with more zeros in their ad budget than you have.
The Media Mix Conspiracy
By Duane Christensen
I love a good conspiracy. Have you ever seen the movie Conspiracy Theory? It’s one of my favorites. But there’s a conspiracy that’s been going on in the advertising and ad agency world for a long time. It’s the Media Mix Conspiracy.
A media mix doesn’t work if you can’t afford it.
A good media mix is super-fantastic if you’ve got cash like King Tut. With a good media mix you get to “touch” people in many different ways. They hear your message on the radio, they see you on TV, they see your logo in print, and they see your name attached to charity events and such. It’s a good way to get into people’s heads.
So…why do I think media mix is a conspiracy? Because MOST businesses are not that big and don’t have the ad budget to DO everything. But we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that we have to REACH every living, breathing soul.
Let me give you an analogy of trying to reach everyone with a small budget. Let’s pretend that 6 people are your media vehicles. 1 is Newspaper, 2 is TV, 3 is Billboard, 4 is Radio, 5 is Direct Mail, and 6 is Bus Bench. And in order for your 6 people to work the best for you they need have their THIRST quenched. Let’s pretend your 6 people each have an eight ounce cup in their hand and they need water. Your ad budget is a 16 ounce bottle of water. So what happens when you try to take that water and fill up your 6 people’s cups? They each get about 2 and 2/3 ounces of water. They drink it up, but is their thirst quenched? No. They’re still thirsty. They don’t want to work when they’re thirsty. But your ad budget (water bottle) is empty. You would have been better off giving all of that water to one person so at least that ONE person can start working for you.
And I didn’t even mention the different segmentation of those media outlets. Hundreds of TV channels, hundreds of billboard locations, multiple radio stations, tons of direct mail options and zipcodes, oodles of magazines and other print options, and too many bus benches to count. It’s daunting.
Liked it
