The start of TV advertising is much different than the model we tend to think of today. In fact, it used to be that only one company would sponsor an entire show, and the show would be named accordingly. Who can forget such favorites as the Kraft Television Theatre or the Texaco Star Theater? This was the standard TV advertising way until the 1950s when an NBC executive named Sylvester “Pat” Weaver introduced the “magazine format.” The idea was to divide the cost of sponsoring a show to lower costs on advertisers, and enable networks to make higher advertising revenue. The concept resulted in the commercial breaks with which we are all too painfully familiar these days.
However, much like radio, this format is threatened by many emerging technologies, one of which is undoubtedly TiVo and other Digital Video Recorders (DVRs). I personally love my TiVo, but it is a nightmare for those who wish to advertise on TV. Now people can watch their favorite TV show and fast-forward through the ads. This is the equivalent of when a mouse figures out how to get the cheese without setting off the trap. Yet once again in the mind of most Gen Ys who grew up in an “instant” world, it seems absurd to have to wait around all night for your favorite show to come on, and then to have to be subjected to relentless amounts of boring commercials. Why bother when we can just digitally record it, watch it when we are ready, and fast-forward through the commercials? Like all other examples, the most efficient technology will always prevail with Gen Y.
Just like the innovators of the twentieth century did, it is still important to embrace new technology and incorporate it quickly.
Moreover, even if one doesn’t own a DVR, virtually all TV shows are available online and can be watched with either no commercials whatsoever, or simply a banner ad displayed in the background. In comparison to waiting for your show to start and having to sit through ads, this is a much more palatable system and most networks are even beginning to kowtow to the emerging importance of the Internet, and making their programs available through their websites for online viewing. In a way they are participating in their own demise. It was summed up best by cartoon character Homer Simpson when he bought his first TiVo. He was fast-forwarding through the commercials and he said something like, “I spit on your grave, commercial-sponsored television!”
Ultimately, the traditional marketing techniques most advertisers still cling to became popular because they were the technological innovations of their day. They were the cutting edge strategies for reaching customers in the most efficient and tactical way. However, let’s face it, TV and radio haven’t been cutting edge technology since James Dean was around, and nobody has been impressed by the idea of the newspaper since people were using candles to light the way to their outhouses. Just like the innovators of the twentieth century did, it is still important to embrace new technology and incorporate it quickly.
I am sure there were companies in the 1950s that said, “Aw, this TV advertising is just a Baby Boomer fad, let’s just stick to what we are doing now.” I would name companies but let’s face it, any company that didn’t adjust to the emerging technologies of the 1950s has probably gone out of business by now.
We now find ourselves on the brink of many new technologies that stand poised to change the world of marketing all over again. You can either adjust and learn to market to this newest generation using the technologies they actually use, or continue to spend money to place ads where they will never be seen.
3
Know Thy Enemy: Infiltrating the Thoughts of Gen Y
The collective experience of any generation forms their shared values and perceptions. Every dramatic event molds mentalities, and advancement of technology sets the standards of expectations.
The assignation of such prolific civil right leaders as John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped to form a generation of progressive-thinking hippies. Not content with their parents’ status quo they sought, and often succeeded, to enact social change, through mass protest. The events they witnessed growing up established a rebellious mind-set in the Baby Boomer generation. Had they grown up in a less turbulent time, they may not have been so apt to open and constant rebellion.
When most Baby Boomers were entering their impressionable teenage years it was the 1960s, which was a time of great and swift social windfall. Perceptions on equality and human rights that had been virtually untouched for generations came crashing down in the span of one decade. Women were finally seen as equals, and not as stereotyped into gender roles. African Americans were finally able to realize many of the rights that had been denied to them for so long. In fact, the first African American president, Barack Obama, is a Baby Boomer.
During Gen Y’s more formative years much of the dust had settled on social change. The new revolution was a technological revolution. It admittedly was not as cool as the revolution in the ’60s; instead of bra burnings, we had adolescent boys who spent so much time sedentary and eating junk food in front of computer screens that they ended up needing bras! The hippies sought to change the world and we sought to change the World of Warcraft. Even though our revolution may not have left us with anything as cool as CCR or John Fogerty songs playing over clips of Vietnam, it was ultimately much more dramatic and world changing far beyond what anyone could have ever imagined!
This push toward interconnectivity on a global scale can be exploited for the purposes of marketing and can build brand awareness faster and more efficiently than could be done any other time in history.
1. A Truly Interconnected World
In keeping with our parents’ hippie mind-sets, the world of Gen Y has become surprisingly unified. I have spent years traveling around the world. I have been on all the continents, and the thing I have found most amazing is how unified Gen Y’s world truly is.
As of the writing this book I have been in 30 different countries. Now I do try to learn a little of the local tongue, nothing mindblowing, usually just niceties such as, “How are you?” and “Cheers” and “Thank you.” I learned enough that when I meet someone from that country again I can impress him or her. You may have noticed though that none of the phrases I learned have any chance of getting me the basic necessities I need to stay alive. You can say “Salud” till you are blue in the face in Argentina, but nobody will bring you a steak. How did I manage not to starve to death in a Moroccan gutter during my years overseas? The reason is if you meet anyone who is a Gen Y member anywhere in the world, odds are they can speak English. Think for a second how profound that is. The result is many Gen Ys can communicate with each other. I have had many dinners where more than ten different countries from three continents are represented at the table. My mini-UN dinner parties aside, this serves as an exemplification of the globalized world that was ushered in during Gen Y’s formative years. Now add to the equation the inclination, or rather addiction to social networking, and you can see what an amazingly intertwined global community Gen Y is. This is a very important fact to remember because this push toward interconnectivity on a global scale can be exploited for the purposes of marketing and can build brand awareness faster and more efficiently than could be done any other time in history.
2. Immune to Traditional Marketing
In a way it is almost impossible to reach Gen Y not using new methods. It is because Gen Y grew up in a world where target marketing was the norm, and as a result they have become very desensitized to traditional marketing techniques. Since the 1980s, when Gen Y was born, an individual going about his or her routine is subjected to more than 3,500 advertisements daily. Considering Gen Y has literally been inundated with these marketing techniques since they were toddlers, how many of the ads do you think actually get through to them? They became immune out of necessity.
The way most advertisers approached this problem was to inundate them with even more traditional marketing campaigns. The rationale behind this is rather dizzying,