Why customers increasingly require flexibility in their media ad buying

We have recently explored how the past few years have ushered in major changes to the media ad sales space: the digitization of audience consumption habits has accelerated, print and other traditional media types have waned, and marketing departments find themselves having to do more with less and re-focussing their strategy on digital advertising, as budgets were slashed.

All this means that advertisers want flexibility and variety in the marketing channels available to them, so that they can use them strategically.

This is where the multiplier effect comes in: it’s easy to understand why advertising across multiple channels is effective. But what is perhaps surprising is that, as marketing researchers Les Binet and Peter Field have been proving in their research, the cumulative effect of advertising across multiple channels is more than the sum of its parts.

This calls back to the age-old adage of the marketing rule of 7, which states that it takes an average of 7 interactions with a brand before a purchase takes place.

Simply put, if you do not offer a wide range of marketing channels - and your competitors do - their advertising real estate is going to be more attractive than yours, and you risk falling behind.

Rapid digitization of content consumption and the decline of traditional platforms

With access to billions of screens, universal connectivity has provided consumers with new alternatives of accessing media content of their choice, anytime, anywhere. It was found that 73% of users now spend more time on their phone than before the pandemic, and 55% of US adults received covid-19 information through social media, accelerating the long-term structural decline of more costly traditional media. 

With digital advertising becoming an effective approach to reach target audiences, there has been a paradigm shift in global advertising spend, with spending on digital media as a percentage of total advertising increasing from 21% to 36% in 2020. 

The change in media consumption habits has forced digital marketers to rethink their content creation strategies, catalyzing the transition from traditional to digital advertising.

More channels, smaller budgets

With CMOs prioritizing flexibility, and stocking up on the right tools to optimize targeting, advertisers are motivated to come up with new ways to engage with the public while combating digital fatigue. 

The issue that arises is that whilst advertising formats are multiplying, budgets are not, especially in the wake of the pandemic. Gartner’s annual CMO spend survey in 2021 indicates a drop in marketing budgets from 11% to 6.4%.

Eighty-three pre cent of marketers say their ability to meet customer expectations depends on their digital capabilities, and 83% say their work will be more technology-driven after the pandemic. An additional challenge is financial, with 42% of those surveyed in a 2020 LinkedIn report citing budget cuts as a challenge moving forward. 

Marketers have no other choice but to strategize their marketing to make it as impactful as possible in the event of further budget cuts. 

Offer a range of advertising options to stimulate all parts of funnel flexibly 

In a world where consumers are the belle of the ball, advertisers must understand what makes them tick. New technologies have fragmented audiences who no longer sit by passively waiting to be exposed to commercial messages.

Today, consumers define how they wish to interact with an organization and are making purchasing decisions based on their interactions. As customers today define how and where they consume content, advertisers risk losing ideal targets. 

Flexibility is the new media optimizer, and a must for advertisers, encouraging a new approach to planning. According to a Forrester research, even before the pandemic, 97% of marketing decision makers said they had experienced an increase in revenue due to their multichannel marketing offers.

As a response mechanism to the shift in the way people consume ads, advertisers more than ever need to be able to offer a range of advertising options to stimulate all parts of the marketing funnel.

A 2021 Salesforce report indicated that 44% of B2B marketers have changed their marketing channel mix since the start of the pandemic to meet new shifts in behavior. In doing so, companies are able to reach more consumers, gather more data, track performance and reduce costs in the long run.

It is vital that media ad sales platforms, whether large or small, are able to cater to the evolving needs of advertisers, and that starts with having robust and advanced ad sales operations technology.