Do you think Mass media advertising will survive the advent of Social media advertising? An Online research has indicated favored social media because of generational change. But before we get there, mainstream will always be the brand awareness and advocacy vehicle for brands targeting baby boomers and the stone age thinkers.
October 23, 2000; 15 years ago Google started their online advertising service AdWords. On that time, there was no major social network there offering these services but this changed in May 2005 after facebook launched it’s first advertising platform for companies. Facebook media advertising revenue was estimated to reach over $8.5 Billion as of 2015.
Research further shows that an organization with huge budget will always place an advert on TVC, Radio, Newspapers or Magazines to persuade customers. Locally, the government and other organizations with mass audiences, will advertise on mainstream media for effective communications. But the challenge remains, customer feedback. Social media has evolved over time to integrate live communications.
According to Cision blog, several opinions were expressed about social media and mass media as follows;
First, “Social networking platforms, such as Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+, are, and will continue to be the most effective advertising channels available. Traditional mass market advertising is struggling to compete with social media for the following reason: Traditional advertising is not engaging”.
Secondly, “Social advertising certainly has the capability to beat out other types of advertising such as paid search, banner advertising through various ad networks and other forms of online advertising. The real question is the goal(s) associated with each of those vehicles”.
Thirdly, “I think it depends greatly on your budget, your product and who your target audience is. I’d recommend TV advertising for almost anyone IF they can afford it. Social media advertising is a lot less expensive, however, and a lot more direct”.
Fourthly, “I recently relaunched my shop, and I now use social media advertising for about 80 percent of the advertising budget on my shop, and it has worked out extremely well for me. The other 20 percent of that budget goes towards advertising on fashion blogs, but I have found that paid advertising on Instagram brings in the vast majority of my sales, with Facebook in second place”.
Lastly, “Social Media will not replace what you call ‘mainstream advertising.’ Like so many things in life, we need to find the optimum balance of social and offline advertising. The balance will be different for each business. Now more than ever, advertising needs to be thought of as an ongoing trial/error/optimization (iterative development) process, not a set-it-and-forget-it campaign ‘spend.”
Therefore, where should Smes advertise and promote their products? Smes should invest in social media as it will target the niche customers/clients that you want to reach without budget inflation or time and you will get encouraging results .Should you think of advertising, the Smes brand support agency is here to for consultancy,advise,creation and execution of advertising campaings.
Consult today.