Ever wonder why companies jump in to advertise on new social media platforms before it has been established that they are going to be viable? Do you worry (or hope) that TV advertising will be completely replaced by social media marketing?
A recent article in The Economist explores a few of these questions.
So why are people trying to use Periscope to advertise, often without a good understanding of the audience on Periscope?
"The digital-media business is still young and volatile, and it is hard to predict which social networks are destined to become the new-media equivalents of America's big four broadcast-TV networks," according to an article in The Economist.
It is volatile. Remember when it seemed like Twitter was the best place for advertisers? But recently user growth on Twitter has been slow and their management has turned over. Facebook is now the favorite because of its huge membership (5x more than Twitter). Also Facebook enjoyed "nine times as much revenue as Twitter."
"Facebook has bought several nascent social-media services that might have grown to become challengers, such as Instagram, a photo-sharing app, and WhatsApp, a messaging app," according to The Economist article. "It has been rolling out ads cautiously on Instagram, to see how users react, but has yet to start doing so on WhatsApp."
But why is there a marketing stampede to each new network? "It still makes sense for marketers to try these new services out, because there is something of a first-mover advantage in digital advertising," according to The Economist article. "Brands that are early to use new platforms benefit disproportionately, explains Linda Boff, a marketing chief at General Electric, because their users have not yet become saturated with marketing messages."
I guess marketing, like nature, abhors a vacuum.
The newer social platforms to get the attention of marketing types are messaging apps, such as Snapchat, WeChat and Kik. "Brands are also starting to do more with Pinterest, where users can "pin up" images of things that appeal to them," according to The Economist. "It seems a fair assumption that users may want to buy the things they are pinning up, although the platform, which has 70m users, may never achieve the scale of Twitter (300m), let alone Facebook (1.5 billion)."
There are some rivals to TV advertising including video apps such as Vine and Periscope, but neither has really taken off yet for advertisers. The Economist article says there is a place for TV ads and even print ads in the modern media environment: "Television ads are still great for reaching big audiences with simple messages. Print ads can lend brands an air of ... Like fund managers, advertisers will always want a balanced portfolio."