Lights Turned Off, Viewers Tuned Out, Game Turned On

At the recent Super Bowl, someone apparently leaned against a rather huge OFF switch in the underbelly of the SuperDome. When they did, 108,000,000 television viewers saw the stadium lights go out. It is not known whether any of the 76,000 potentially over-served fans in the stadium actually noticed.

Advertisers don’t like it when millions of prospects grow bored and walk away from the television, especially when their $3.5M 30-second commercial hasn’t run yet. Darn the luck.

Marketing’s Inviolable Rule #1: Keep the audience. You cannot sell to an empty room, non-listeners, non-subscribers, or delete-happy index fingers.

This may “seem” obvious except that you’re paying for advertising seen by nobody. Exposed: A Minor Conspiracy, plus a surprisingly reliable money-making media...

Is this a marketing conspiracy?

Consider dozens of Yellow Page books stacked in an apartment hallway with no interested takers. Or on our lake house street, 4-5 newspapers in every recreational home’s driveway to drive the “delivery” numbers up. Or your banner ad that had a reported multi-thousand visitors… with not a single email or phone call to show for it.

How often are you spending money selling to an empty room? More than you think.

And today more than ever, viewers/readers/listeners have turned off… because they can. Tivo renders Television time-slotting useless. Pandora and subscription radio marginalizes radio air time. Spam and over-inundated inboxes makes your “free” email like raindrops pelting a roof.

The advertiser has lost control of the advertisee.

Your control, bought with your dollars, to touch your audience with your chosen message is what governs your marketing outcome.

See, in a “normal” circumstance, billion-dollar ad buyers would’ve had control of the Super Bowl audience. Heck, they’d be there for 3 hours or so, dying to see what Budweiser, Doritos and Dodge – the ad “winners” in order by the way – were going to come up with.

But no. Either the power bill on the Dome was overdue or a guy with a 32-ounce Hurricane (in the coveted $12 Souvenir Cup!) leans on the switch and ‘pfzzzzzt!’, no control.

A Brief but Meaningful “Lack of Control” Rant

The internet is everyone’s darling. Born of good vibes and lofty intention, it is the bastion of societal betterment (except that it is eating our brains, but that’s another matter).

You think your Local Listing is controllable? Guess again. I’m convinced that there is a room at Google just for insane math professors with severe short-term memory loss working toward an algorithmic apocalypse. And they don’t want converts.

You think your Social marketing is controllable? If Zuckerberg even thinks about creating more effective ad space, hordes of anti-selling but over-posting non-buyers begin designing a pyre-mounted stake just for him. Board meetings often discourage ticking off a billion people (though unless there is a rational business argument to keep them, I’m a bit stumped as to why not).

Oh, and those SEO analytics and Pay-Per-Click numbers you’re getting for your site? Too bad they aren’t currency, provable, real prospects, or even reachable for that matter. You spend a ton of time trying to “convert” numbers that are mythical at best.

Rant mostly ends here, but you get my point. Marketing to an empty room gets expensive.

Oh, to leave you with a media bright spot: The most enduring media stalwart – and one I continue to laud – is the lovably offline direct mail. Why? Three biggies right here:

1. Targetability (as in specificity of chosen audience),
2. Metering (choosing exactly how many), and
3. Timing (mailed when you say, not when the media tells you) make Direct Mail one thing most other media are not:

Controllable.

Right, I know. The Pony Express barely serves your town any more. This means less competition in the mailbox rendering each piece therein more valuable.

In a sea of confusing or nearly conspiratorial numbers, it is time for you to regain control. This starts with the fullest and most attentive room you’ve got – your customer list. Make it your marketing’s mission to maintain an active customer base first.

You want to lose control of your customers? Here’s how: Forget about them for 6 months and see what happens. (I’ll go ahead and blow the surprise: 11% of them will leave you due to your indifference. Multiply that number by your average sale and gulp hard.)

You want to lose control of your “warm” social site prospects? Sell to them like an over-caffeinated circus barker. That’ll do it. Oh, just thought of another: Tell complete strangers to “like” you on Facebook, as if that’s enough.  You almost had them, but then lost control.

Marketing today has changed. Power has shifted. It’s more of a dance of parity than it used to be. Prospect and prospector a little tenuous, semi-suspect of each other. Make a customer mad today and he takes control back, revealing your misstep for all online. Delight a customer and give them reason to share it, and you win new customers at no expense.

Take control of your audience to help control your outcome. Leave them to chance, and there’s a chance they’ll leave you.

During the Super Bowl black out, announcers did their best to keep the viewing audience engaged, but coming up with new ways to say, “Man it’s really dark!” grew old, and the audience evaporated. San Francisco gave their fans a reason to rally with a highly commendable effort. Yet for them and the second half advertisers, it was too little too late.