Advertising tracking… Do you do it?
Everyone would like to know what could work best for them and their business; what strategy to employ and how to apply it successfully to their business model. Unfortunately, we do not have crystal balls and, as regrettable as it may sound, we need to go back to basics: Trial and Error.
When creating advertising campaigns for either online media, print media or television and radio there are certain things we can do to ensure that we monitor and adapt our advertising packages to be certain that action we are taking is accomplishing its primary objectives and achieving results.
The average advert needs to be seen in printed media or online at least 7 times for the general eye to recognise the advert and to react to it. That’s a vast amount of advertising.
Does this mean that short-term advertising campaigns don’t work?
No, not necessarily. Certain brands are already very recognisable and certain advertising campaigns may include different artworks and imagery; a theme or a style is always recognisable. This enables solid and existing brands to run short campaigns.
Is your brand working for you?
To build a successful and recognisable brand is a long and arduous process. However, it is achievable within months with the right resources and budgets available.
So how do we recommend you track your advertising?
There are a few very simple ways. The most cost effective is to ask clients as soon as they contact you. It is a thirty-second question that can reveal all. Alternatively, situated on your website’s “contact us” page you can have a “how did you hear about us?” question. One of the best ways we have found is to have different contact email addresses for different adverts. It’s cost effective and shows you exactly what is working for you and what isn’t.
Why is it so important to track advertising?
Simple – ROI! Return on investment is an industry standard method of assessing the effectiveness of any cost to your business. To put it very simply, this will allow you to see how much you earned compared to how much you spent.
Should you wish to discuss marketing, advertising campaigns or simply request more information on Advertising Tracking then contact Just Consulting Ltd on +350 216 56789.
Online advertising is no longer the future – it’s the present!
Official figures released recently indicate that the internet now accounts for a quarter of all advertising spending. The study undertaken by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the accountants PwC found that online advertising spending grew three times as rapidly in 2010 as in 2009.
The value of online advertising in 2010 grew by 12.8%. This means that, in cold hard currency, online advertising is worth more than £4bn; clearly outpacing the rest of the advertising market, which is still recovering after dipping during the recession.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the biggest growth area was display advertising on social networks, which grew by nearly 200%.
The Social Network Effect
Facebook has made big advances in the last year in persuading advertisers to see social networks as a place to promote their wares. With figures showing that internet users spend approximately 25% of their online time on social networks, advertisers are keen to tap into this audience.
Many marketing companies and web advertisers are capitalising on this trend by offering Social Network Optimisation (SNO) packages to their clients as a means of getting their brand into thousands of households at the click of a button. SNO involves the creation, management and regular updating of customised social network pages for clients, essentially providing them with free and unlimited advertising space that can be easily accessed by anyone, anywhere on the planet at any time. This has become such a powerful tool that most brands and companies can now be found on Facebook – just look out for the Facebook logo at the end of most TV adverts!!
Other Online Trends
Similarly, online video advertising also nearly doubled in 2010, with £54m spent on adverts that appeared before, during or after video clips.
Television spending has also bounced back after a steep decline – but do keep an eye out for that Facebook link!
Search advertising, still dominated by Google, remains the biggest earner, although growth in this more mature business was just 8%.
Ian Barber of the Advertising Association says there is one clear attraction which is boosting online spending: “It’s targeted; it makes it easier for brands to work out who they’re advertising to.”
Bad News for Print
Conversely, much of the Press is still suffering, with magazines and regional newspapers seeing revenues continue to fall. Classified advertising, once a key element in regional newspaper revenues, has now nearly all migrated online.
However, Lynne Anderson of the Newspaper Society says local newspapers are capturing some of that online advertising spending on their own websites: “They are getting pretty savvy at capturing audiences in new ways.”
The Key to Success is Online
With WiFi access being provided by most bars, cafes and restaurants, and smartphones leading the way in mobile telecommunications, access to the internet and to social networks is immediate and 24/7.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that if your business is not online you are at a distinct disadvantage. With quicker and easier access to a continually expanding online marketplace, online advertising is helping to cut business costs and increase revenue. How does that grab you during a recession?
The numbers speak for themselves – advertise online and be seen!
Lincoln Just Group v Lions Baker Tilly
A closely fought match on 5 March 2011 at a windy Victoria Stadium. Lions Baker Tilly eventually won the match 3 – 0 but this score did not reflect the closeness of the encounter. A great effort by the Lincoln Just Group team now fully established in the “higher” league for the second part of the season. A lot of challenging matches ahead but they are in the top group on merit so are ready to face the steep learning curve that awaits them.
Lincoln Just Group v St Josephs (friendly)
Friendly match played on the CEPSA pitch with invited superstars of tomorrow JC and Tiffany turning out for Lincoln Just Group. The match finished 7 – 5 to St Josephs. LJG did not have available either of their two goal keepers so rotated the position among outfield players including Kaylan Villa who “sold a dummy” to an onrushing forward and avoided a certain goal. Click here to link to Lincoln Just Group Facebook page.
Advertising Your Brand
It is often misconstrued that advertising is useless, unfruitful and a bit of a pain in the first place. Lets look at some of these notions and break down some of the fundamental mistakes people make from day one.
Advertising, in particular for your brand rather than a specific product is a long-term affair rather than a one-night stand. People think that because they released an advert into a magazine or onto a website that this means they should have more clients the very next day. It has been proven that for an advert, or for that matter any image, to stick in our minds and relate to something in particular, we must see and register it at least 7 times.
“7 times” I hear you cry… well yes, seven times. This means that straight away your advertising budget of 2 adverts in the next year is now a complete and utter waste of your time as well as that of the viewer.
Coca-cola re-invests almost half of its profits every year into advertising. In fact they have gotten so good at it that even “Santa” as we know him is influenced by them. The red and white Santa that is beloved to most children around the globe is in fact the same colour as a coca cola bottle. Coincidence, unfortunately not…
Santa was green and red for many years until coca cola saw a great advertising opportunity, with “Santa” at the heart of it. Ever wondered why the Christmas season advertising on television is so heavily polluted with “holidays are coming” jingles that belongs to Coca-Cola.
Think long term on your advertising. Go for a smaller advert in a more predominant place and make sure that you repeat it at least 6 or 7 times minimum before changing to a new advertising campaign. Use multiple outlets to expose your advert as much as possible. Whether it be online, magazines, newspapers, flyers or television, the visual impact must remain the same.
People often believe that advertising their brand over a particular product is not useful. This again is only true if you are not doing it right. Your brand must be synonymous with your products. People must always relate your brand to your products. Running a great campaign for your brand will irrefutably bring attention to your products as, once they have noticed your brand, they will look in to what you do.
We often get told that our branding isn’t necessarily the best and that our adverts should be more visible to the public. The honest truth is that we don’t get enough time to concentrate on our own public profile, as we are usually too busy doing it for our clients.
Knowing whether an advertising campaign is fruitful or not is a very complicated question to answer. We have tried to do our best by creating other articles in regards to advertising tracking and to succeed or not succeed, that is that adverts question?
As hard as it may be to come up with a new marketing campaign or to think of new ideas that will generate the kind of image and results that you want, you must always think that this will be for a necessary and very fruitful gain long term, if done correctly.
If you are not sure about how to do it, then get in touch with one of our consultants that will be more than happy to discuss, no commitment required, your advertising needs.
Gib Easy Magazine
Just Consulting is pleased to announce that we can now offer advertising & Advertorials in the Gib Easy Magazine. After long on-going talks we now have yet another product in our vast armoury to offer to our clients.
The Gib Easy Magazine joins the ranks of:
The Gibraltar Magazine
The Gibraltar Chronicle
www.Gibraltar.com
www.honestbites.com
We currently also offer referal services to:
GBC
Spectrum Radio – Spain’s largest English speaking radio service
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We are still in talks with various other media outlets and hope to continue to increase our range of products this coming year.
Lincoln Just Group – link to our Facebook page
Join the team on the Facebook page and see up to date photographs of the matches and training sessions.
Click here to view the Facebook page
Marketing a marketing company
As terrible as it sounds, even though we do this on a day to day basis for our clients, we are probably amongst the worst when it comes to marketing ourselves. Our business coming from word of mouth and referrals more than anything else.
We are deemed to be Chameleons, taking on the shapes, colours and brands of our clients and flying their flags high and proud. The honest truth being we spend so much time doing that that we barely find the time to advertise and market ourselves, hence the big push this week on our blog.
You may have recently seen that we have changed phone numbers, from +350 216 51010 to +350 216 56789. As part of this catchy phone number change we decided to build up some artwork and start pushing out our new phone number in a more visual way rather than how we would usually.
Once again, as with all our marketing in Gibraltar, let us know your thoughts on our new ad, and what you think of Stick – the stickman.. We are thinking of using him in some new adverts…
We look forward to your comments.
Welcome to our New Blog
Just Consulting has decided to relaunch it’s Blog. So, Welcome! Our new blog will be following our clients marketing in Gibraltar, our sponsorship and development of youth programmes in Gibraltar as well as our development of new products, systems and white label products. Every now and again we will have product reviews, interesting news articles as well as new ideas for you to comment and vote on.
We are currently taking an active interest in Local based websites and are looking to develop partnerships with these sites in a view to aid our clients as well as develop the existing internet infrastructure here in Gibraltar.
Keep checking back to see the latest up to date news. For more information on Marketing in Gibraltar check out the Just Consulting Website.
Two Point Zero
Twopointzero – The latest young enterprise company to catch our eye this year.
This young dynamic team has pin pointed a unique Branding concept with USB Sticks.
Partnered with a great manufacturer and branding package they can offer some true quality branded merchandise to companies at a great price.
With over 20 different models, and prices starting from under £5 per USB stick this seems like it’s almost too good to be true. To help the team at Twopointzero, we are going to be offering this service to some of our clients on behalf of Twopointzero.
Keep an eye open to see what we have to offer over the next few weeks as we are increasing our product & service range.
