What Insecticide Can Teach You About Advertising

By Tyler Munn, www.iBoomerang.com

Advertising is everywhere in America. I don’t think you would shock anyone with that statement. What may astound you, however, is just how much advertising Americans are really exposed to. Digital media analyzer comScore (if you’ve read this blog since its inception, you can probably guess by now that comScore sends me a lot of press releases) released a study revealing Internet display ads generated over 1 trillion total impressions in the first quarter of 2010 at a cost of $2.7 billion (impressions being the total number of times all ads were viewed).

That is ridiculous.

As always, this raises the question “Why/How does this effect agents?” For starters, it tells you that there are a ton of online ads out there. I remember watching a documentary about marketing that compared advertising to spraying insecticide- the more you spray the insects (consumers), the more immune to the insecticide (advertisements) they will become, creating the need to create stronger and more abundant insecticide. (Isn’t it flattering to know that’s how the ad industry views you?)

Want proof of this notion in the ad industry? Think about your own online experience for a second. According to these numbers, you were exposed to ads about 4,000 times, give or take, in the past quarter. How many of these ads do you remember or did you click on? If you can honestly say more than a handful, I’d be impressed with the sponginess of your mind.

So, before you accuse me of rambling aimlessly with no real point, let me make not one, but two whole points:

• In order to compete for someone’s attention, you need to put yourself in as many places as possible. This can be done using a potent mixture of social media, your site and e-mail marketing. You obviously don’t want to bombard someone, but keep yourself on their mind, even if it’s in passing as they scan their inbox.
• Don’t be afraid to get creative. I know in my last post I cautioned against going outside of the box, but that’s only if you’re going to get really adventurous with your overall strategy. Here, I’m merely suggesting graphical creativity, or perhaps use a different theme or voice for your ad content.

 

I know it’s repetitive and I tend to harp on social media at times, but all of these things are necessary to make yourself memorable. As a salesperson, you cannot afford to fade into the background. The casual fan doesn’t remember the drummer in the rock band, the punter on the football team or the seventh man on the basketball team. They remember the lead singer, the Quarterback, the starting phenom at Guard. If you don’t find a way to stand out, your chances of ever being noticed are 1 in a trillion.

Advertisement