Brands Diversify their Marketing Platforms, What Does that Mean for Digital Advertising?

Because of digital media marketing to consumers, specifically mid pandemic, has been increasingly easier, but is also becoming more complex. Platforms that were the best for advertising and guaranteed sales five years ago, companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, are not as robust or targeted to niche audiences that will convert the casual viewer to a buyer. In order to amend this there is a shift happening in digital advertising to diversify markets to branch to platforms that are relatively new. Additionally these companies will have to search for ways to market products that are creative to entice current day consumers that expect a much more authentic and personalized brand experience.

In this article, “The year of media mix diversification is here”, Tierney Wilson, senior vice president of client strategy at Marketing Dive, writes about the four different mediums to target in the current age of marketing. These include TikTok, digital TV, native display, and streaming audio (such as podcasts).  

According to the article, the amount of people exposed to ads doubled on Tiktok from 19% to 37%. TikTok is working towards becoming an advertising competitor with platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. In order to succeed on TikTok brands should show their personality and incorporate trends on the app into their marketing strategy. This makes the viewer feel more engaged with the brand and what they're selling. 65% of viewers on TikTok prefer brands that create or engage in trending content. This is a statistic that surprised me and shows how important it can be for a company to be able to be playful and personable with its online audience.

Talking about statistics streaming platforms are prime real estate for advertisers in a way. Around 46% ad recall for TV streaming, this is a valuable avenue for marketers to look at. There was a suggestion that because of the use of phones while watching TV, that could be an avenue to use technology similar to QR codes to keep users enticed. Platforms such as Amazon, Netflix, and NBCU are creating features for shopping within their streaming services.

Consumers are wanting authentic marketing that pertains to their lives. Using native display placements is a way for companies to get in touch with what buyers are looking for and are already interested in. This type of marketing has been on the rise with $45 billion being used in 2020.

The last strategy concerns streaming audio services and how to best market to an audience of over 130 million people that pay for these services. Ad recall is 4.4 times higher on podcasts than any other form of digital media, according to this article. The writer comments that over 65% of Gen Z adults trust their friend and family for product recommendation, this could be leveraged by beloved podcast hosts to sell to their audiences their favorite products. The article further discusses Spotif’s “Call-To-Action Cards” that allow listeners to click on ads the play to further connect advertisers with potential customers. Similarly Amazon allows for listeners to ask Alexa for more information about ads played on Amazon Music.

I think all of these marketing strategies are creative and use relatively current data to inform what best advertising plans to employ. I think some challenges that brands can have in reaching the modern consumer from these strategies are that the average consumer is already inundated with so much information and marketing on a daily basis, I’m not sure how effective these strategies would be. Unless someone is already an active customer with a brand. Finding a niche and also being able to keep consumers interested is increasingly hard in an ever changing digital world. These strategies might work for the next few years, but the future is full of surprises and I bet these brands will have to adapt again sooner rather than later.