The most valuable thing customers can offer you (besides money) is their attention. This commodity is becoming harder and harder to capture. A customer’s attention is constantly being pulled by digital and physical platforms, and it seems like there is a new marketing platform appearing everyday. The challenge, as you know, is to break through the white noise and get your message to come in crystal clear. This task is more difficult if you are trying to target the valuable demographic of college students and their ever shortening attention span. Working for The Black Sheep, it is our job to find out just how to do that, and this attempts to share some of what we have learned with you.
Everybody Loves Attention
Every company wants their customer’s attention for as long as possible. Many attempt to accomplish this goal through only one point of contact. These types of strategies are limiting in a few ways. The number of people who will see an ad will be low if your strategy is limited to one platform. In addition, the frequency at which people will view the ad will be far less than a multi-platformed strategy. For example, a local bar could be hoping to to get the attention of college students in their area, and attempt to accomplish this with a commercial during a big game with lots of viewers. Great idea, right?
Sadly, this way of thinking can be antiquated, misses huge parts of the desired demographic, and the ad is only shown during one timeframe. Thousands of students will be at the game, thousands will stream it online, and thousands more won’t care about the game at all. If you want to stand out from the thousands of advertisements bombarding students, your message will need to appear frequently, and through multiple channels both physically and digitally.
Frequency is Key
If you take all the money you would spend on a TV ad and instead divest it into stadium advertising, campus flyering, and targeted online ads, not only are you likely spending the same amount or less, but you are reaching a larger percentage of the desired demographic. Better yet, the frequency at which potential customers will likely see your ad is much higher. The lesson to learn here is not to put all of your marketing efforts in one basket. People are constantly switching their attention from device to device and place to place, so you need to be in as many locations as possible to make your message carry clout. Countless studies suggest that the response to an advertisement is not instantaneous and increases with repetition. In other words, instead of jumping up and down waving your arms hoping to get everyone’s attention, be everywhere so they can’t miss you!
Great! How?
First and foremost it is important to figure out who you are marketing to, and understand them on a more personal level than just as someone who might be interested in what you offer. You need to really think hard about what your audience does on a day to day basis, and try to work your way into that routine. When you are able to do this it becomes a lot easier to know where and how you should be marketing.
At The Black Sheep, the clients we work with have found the most success complementing their efforts with both online and offline efforts. For example, when we worked with Hunter Boots, we created a campaign that included on campus flyering, Greek announcements, Facebook and Instagram posts, a giveaway, and a photo booth at a popular on campus concert. The combination of marketing tactics resulted in a huge number of sign ups for the giveaway and a great turn-out at the photo booth. They generated valuable exposures for the brand and captured their customer’s attention utilizing a variety of platforms. Bottom line, go where your audience goes. Make your tactics and your message a part of their experience to ensure your marketing efforts increase frequency of views and ultimately drive engagement.
