It's my roommate's birthday barbeque and I manage to find the one former ad guy to have a little pow-wow with and discuss print (Murray's expertise) vs. interactive (my vested interest) advertising. I'm beginning to wonder if I have any shame at all.
The discussion mostly focused on the movement towards accountability in marketing efforts. As a print designer for a traditional ad agency, tracking and ROI was not a factor. We went back and forth over the pros and cons from an agency perspective and I understood where he was coming from.
Being held accountable is scary. Clients can be unreasonable and expect immediate and astronomical results from an ad that was geared to brand a product or service (or whatnot) and this can adversely affect the agency/client relationship and consequently your livelihood. That is enormously frightening.
My view is this - What kind of marketer would I be if I had no clue as to the amount of return I was getting for every dollar in my budget? I would have absolutely no footing to defend or increase my budget during the next fiscal year and rightfully so.
That's why I am having an unrequited love affair with interactive. With a print ad you have pretty good idea how many people saw that ad, at what time period, and whether or not sales grew as a result. Could other factors have played a role in said growth? Sure, but as far as you're concerned, the ad was successful.
With an interactive ad you can tell exactly how many people saw your ad and for how long. You can tell if they played with the interface, you know if they clicked through, bought the product or service, or just found out more information. You can find out if they came back later to make a purchase, or if seeing the ad a second or a third time made a difference. The list goes on.
It turns advertising into a grand experiment tempered with a goal in mind! How awesome is that? It's really awesome.
These people get it.
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