We all know the world is changing. We can all sense it. Things just ain’t the way they used to be. The activities that fill our days aren’t nearly what they were just a decade ago. Technology is developing faster than any of us can blink an eye. And with all these changes, the world of sales, marketing, and advertising will never be the same. Nope, not even close.
I’ve owned a small business for almost 10 years now. The way I get leads today is nothing like when I started.
You see, today’s marketing takes brains, effort, and a pursuit of excellence. It is social, all about giving, and has everything to do with teaching.
Today’s marketing is the internet. Today’s marketing is your website and social media.
A New, and Better, Era of Advertising
Yesterday’s marketing was laughable. It was essentially the antithesis of social web. It was the opposite of giving. The king was the one who had enough dollars to throw at more leads.
Luckily, for the ones that are willing to do what it takes, those days are gone.
And with them, old marketing mediums will join the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the City of Pompey, and the Roman Empire.
It could be argued that the following mediums will still exist in 10 years, but let’s skip the semantics for a moment and accept reality—emotion aside. Let’s look to the future and embrace what has been, what is, and what will be.
So without further ado, here are 5 advertising mediums that will not exist in 2020
1. The Yellow Pages
The book that has killed more rain forests than any other will no longer be in the households of millions. For most consumers, this change has already been wrought, and assuredly many more will soon follow. Because of the lack of viewers, full-page ads that cost more than most people’s mortgages will have no takers. Business owners will continue to balk at their laughable prices and direct their funds elsewhere. And with no takers, the Yellow Pages (and any other phone directory like it), will be a blip on the radar that is business marketing in the 20th century.
2. Local Radio
Yes, some radio will survive, but most of the little guys won’t have a pulse within the decade. In today’s market, the idea of selling 30 and 60 second ads to businesses and telling them that they have to do it for at least 6 months to ‘brand’ their image is utterly laughable. Radio is short-term advertising. Let’s not kid ourselves any longer and pretend it’s a viable long-term solution for most small businesses, because it simply isn’t. Too many people have learned to block out its commercials. IPods, Sirius, and the like are the new wave. The once king of the first half of the 19th century will now bow down to the new mediums technology has brought us.
3. Home Shows
If I had a dollar for every home show I’ve done over the years…….but alas, there days are numbered as well and I, along with thousands and thousands of other businesses, have finally learned to focus my energy and efforts elsewhere. Not only is the time, money, and effort of businesses squandered during such shows, but consumers can find out the latest and greatest info, gadgets, and home improvements tools online, which is much more appealing than paying $10 to walk the halls of a convention center and hear some guy yacking away about his amazing ‘shammy’ mop/broom/ vacuum/you-fill-in-the-blank.
4. Direct Mail
Sorry RSVP. Lo Siento Val Pak. The idea of direct mailers being relevant in 2010, much less 2020, is laughable. Yeah, they had their day, and were at times nice while they lasted. But with email and targeted online inbound marketing being a fraction of the cost of direct mail, the medium is soon to be dead in the water.
5. Newspaper
Honestly, this one makes me sad. There is just something special about a fresh, off-the press newspaper. But all good advertising mediums must come to an end, and newspaper is certainly no exception to the rule. Frankly, I don’t know of any intelligent marketing department or business that is consistently using newspaper advertising in 2010. The concept of spending up to thousands of dollars on one single ad, only to have it relevant for one single day, is utterly inconceivable to comprehend. Let’s see, I can write an awesome blog article, at zero cost, that will possibly bring me thousands upon thousands of visitors and leads for months upon months, or I can spend $1000 on a full page ad that may bring me a few leads tomorrow……..Golly, now that’s a tough debate.
So those are 5 mediums that will not exist in 2020. What are your thoughts? Anyone out there want to defend these mediums? What others can you see going bye-bye? As always, your thoughts are much appreciated.
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I filed in, took my seat,…
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
You know its funny Marcus. Just yesterday, I was returning home and I noticed these two, big phone books that just arrived. I remember thinking “that’s totally unnecessary”.
No challenges from me on these 5. I think its key that we, ourselves don’t become antiquated and continually evolve with this ever changing landscape.
Nice job!
Respectfully,
Paul Castain
Castain, what’s up you sick salesman? Thanks for the comment(there went another tree
) and keep up your killer content over there on Sales Playbook.
I agree; these media will likely still exist, but will be sufficiently different that they can easily be called something else.
My take:
1. Yellow Pages – I have no idea how this will do anything, but wither away. Clearly, there will be an online version, but what will the offline adaption look like? I don’t know.
2. Local Radio – The only “local” radio models that I can envision surviving are NPR (where some large percentage is national and international syndicated content with a dollop of local content mixed in) and subsidized college radio.
3. Home Shows – I’ve personally never been a fan, so I can’t find an argument for these. I just envision the only similar things that people might be able to jump on would be city/county/state fairs. I’d rather save a little time by quickly educating myself online and then go directly to the people that interest me…rather than meandering aisles and asking potentially everyone about what I’m looking for.
4. Direct Mail – My company does a ton of direct mailing for nonprofits, so I’m a little biased here, but my focus is digital, so hopefully, that mitigates this a bit. Until we can get rid of that valpak garbage, I see direct mail not being as effective as it could be. Sure, plenty of people prefer to communicate with brands, NPOs, etc online (& that % is growing), but for those that do not, we need a strategy that demonstrates value and constantly reminds recipients “This is why I signed up for mail from organization XYZ.”
5. Newspaper – It is sad that hardcore investigative reporting and decent editorial is suffering due to a lack of advertising dollars, but that is the reality of it. Personally, I’ve never subscribed to the paper. My parents get it, but they live in a small town, which tends to have probably a slightly higher proportion of relevant local content than, say, the NYT…even then, my dad still calls it The Joke Sheet. Whenever someone out there figures out how to provide only the content that people want in their paper, we might have a small, but sustainable, group of folks, who will pay.
Nice post, Marcus. As always, well thought out and presented.
.-= Eric Pratum´s last blog ..Ditch the paper resume =-.
Dang Pratum, bringing the heat on that one bro. Great points, and I agree with them all. The fact that your focus for direct mail is electronic is certainly the best path to take. And for not having done Home Shows, you sure seem to get it! Keep making it happen my friend
I agree Marcus. In the past, I have utilized yellow pages, home shows, direct mail and newspapers (magazines). Today 40% of my sales come from referals and 60% from the internet. It may be worth mentioning that the city of Pompey and the Roman Empire left a legacy that lives on today, tiled bathtubs, spas and swimming pools.
Great example Bob. You’ve been doing this for a long time and have gone through the shift at a much greater rate than myself. Props to you for being ‘an older dude who embraces the new’!
I love the opening picture. That was a great movie.
I am going to have some coworkers come read this. It illustrates everything I have been trying to say about our advertising. People want to hesitate buying a directory listing for $300 for a year that gets thousands of hits a month but don’t mind paying twice that or a piece of paper that will be distributed once then (hopefully) recycled. It annoys me no end.
.-= Domain Name Ninja´s last blog ..Copying Content – Still Valuable- or A Thing of The Past A myth debunked =-.
Well put Ninja, there are definitely some screwed up, old-school marketing paradigms out there. Just keep making it happen on your end my friend!
Just dont forget the value of a good product and word of mouth advertising which in today’s age word of mouth IS the internet…Rush Limbaugh said yesterday that it was all about profit first, i say its all about the product you sell. work to eliminate ever having to go back on a job to fix little mistakes, for example american cars lost their place in the world of car builders to japan and others by losing quality control…compared to toyota chevrolet just falls apart faster…but see i still listen to am radio
Phil, are you a Rush puppet??
…..jk, but your point is well stated, as today’s word of mouth truly is the internet. In fact, that would make a great article topic. Thanks for the idea!
Not sure they will be extinct but I think you are absolutely correct about the fading impact of these mediums; especially the Yellow Pages. And I agree about newspaers and how sad that is. That’s why I think we have such an uninformed society.
TV Commercials I think will still be important even with DVRs. They just have to be much more entertaining.
Web advertising is not only effective it’s highly trackable; far more than the above mentioned methods.
2 years ago 1 of every 10 videos I produced for clients made it to the web. Now it’s almost 100%.
Great points Eric. As a video guy, you certainly know what the heck you’re talking about and have seen the trends. What’s crazy though is that many see the trends, but elect to look the other way…..Very odd.
Marcus -
I enjoyed reading your post and you raised some interesting points. But, I have to disagree with you on the demise of direct mail and Valpak in particular. In fact, MagnaGlobal and IBISWorld, two trusted third party research firms, both agree that direct mail is projected to grow modestly over the coming years, not decline out of existence. Granted, the growth is not as aggressive as it has been in prior years, but few sectors are growing like they did 5 years ago, right? We see continued use of advanced targeting (behavioral, demographics, geographic, etc) and precision delivery timing as being key to the future of direct mail for better ROI for advertisers and more relevant offers for consumers.
It may be splitting hairs, but we don’t see ourselves as a direct mail company. We see ourselves as a direct marketing company – a transaction triggering company – a company that understands how businesses can balance ROI with what it takes to motivate a consumer to act. Direct mail works but as you point out, staying current and changing with the times is vital for marketers. Businesses (like ours) that intend to be around in 10 or 20 years and beyond, must invest in the future — and technology is part of that investment. That’s why we launched Valpak for mobile and have apps for the iPhone, Android, Palm Pre and Blackberry. We’re also developing SMS and other digital media tools for our 50,000 advertising clients to be able to reach consumers in new ways now and in the future.
Sure – we’re a 40+ year old company, but the bottom line is that we deliver results for our advertisers and values for consumers…and we plan to continue doing so for many, many years to come.
Gila Fox
Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, Inc.
Largo, FL
Wow Gila, that’s a heck of a response, and I’m thrilled to see ValPak is embracing the future and modifying their business model to meet the demands of today’s, and tomorrow’s, marketplace. Best to you
I just came across this posting and have a different perspective on a couple of your points above. To summarize my thoughts:
1. Yellow Pages – I think there are 2 different markets for a physical phone book and that this post only considers one, the personal use market. I think that in the next 10- 20 years we will and should see the physical yellow pages for personal use go by the way side. There is a second market for phone books; however that the comments above and the post do not recognize. That is the business market. I for one, in the recent past (last year or two) have been in a store and asked to use a phone book or been in a hotel without internet access and wanting to find a restaurant nearby. For those individuals with smartphones this may not be a problem but for those without a smartphone or who do not have a phone at all, it is still a great convenience for the phone books to be available.
2. Local Radio – No comment. I have no idea what th efuture holds for radio
3. Home Shows – I actually disagree and think that home shows will continue to grow as a market. As someone who likes to attend the shows I can tell you that many times, the problem is that the exhibitors are not using the show to their own advantage, which is why it may seem like a waste of money, but if you get yourself in the right show and exhibit correctly, you will see a strong return.
4. Direct Mail – I think you need to qualify “direct mail” as I think there are 2 different kids – junk mail and highly targeted direct mail. The junk mail (random stuff jammed into my mailbox) is definitely something that I hope will disappear … preferrably a lot sooner than by 2020; however, highly targeted direct mail from places I have purchased from would be most welcome to me. For example, I like to cook and I spend a great deal of money at a store called Stokes. Stokes releases 1 catalogue a year and to my knowledge doesn’t really advertise their sales much. If they were to take my information and send me monthly correspondences about things I might be interested in based on my past purchasing behaviour I would probably spend a lot more money there. I think the beauty of direct mail in 10 years is that it touches my hand directly, unlike all the emails I have going to various accoutns that I have signed up for and am interested in but do not really want to waste time reading.
5. Newspaper – I think this will actually still be around maybe more heavily focused on advertising in free daily publications but still, I think this will still be here in 2020.
Cheers.
Hi Jennifer, and what a well thought out comment. Although I don’t completely agree with you, you make a lot of solid points, no question. The beauty is that time we’ll tell, and I guess we’ll be writing about this a lot more over the coming years as things continue to unfold.
Have a great week and thanks again for stopping by.
Marcus
“…their days are numbered…”
Marcus, hope you’re wrong.
Suspect you’re right.
Good, provocative post.
Greg Alder´s last [type] ..See what’s possible | To think outside the square, create a circle
Appreciate that Greg.