On Tuesday night, I, along with
13.7 million other viewers, tuned in to watch the season two premiere of
Glee on
FOX – and loved every minute of it. Stop judging me.
Love it or hate it, Glee has become a pop culture phenomenon since its introduction in the fall of 2009, introducing millions to the world of show choir theatrics. Whether it’s the students’ powerful ballads or the teachers’ snarky comments, the show has something for just about everyone – that is, if you watch television.
Recently,
TechCrunch reported a noticeable drop in cable subscriptions –
approximately 800,000 cancellations with predictions of more than 1.6 million by the end of 2011 – as a result of the economic downturn. And it’s not as if consumers are simply opting for analog cable – they’re cutting out traditional television all together, opting to view their favorite shows on sites like
Hulu.com or the network’s official website.
As consumers continue to cut out the “luxuries” – such as premium cable subscriptions, meals out of the house and extravagant vacations – marketers are faced with an increasingly hard-to-reach audience. The one-two punch of less discretionary income and a shrinking target audience make having the right marketing and communications tactics now more important than ever.
Many have been slow to adapt to the change in consumer behavior, continuing to spend millions of dollars on traditional advertising – television, radio and print – rather than following the consumers in the transition to online media. For example, $62 billion was spent on television advertising last year, while just $1 billion was spent on online advertising – was that money well spent if the audience is dwindling in record numbers?
As online content becomes more rich, giving consumers the information and programming they want in a preferred format, non-traditional outreach will become increasingly critical. Tactics such as social media marketing, corporate blog creation and online advertising campaigns have already begun the transition from second thought to first response.
At a recent interactive marketing event, I learned that
HP saw considerable consumer-facing sales revenue through its social media marketing – something they’re admittedly only just learning to leverage properly. HP is just one example of a company that understands today’s investment is tomorrow’s profit – and the bigger the risk, the greater the reward.
So don’t be left behind – pay attention to where you consumers are spending their time and money, and how you can reach them in creative ways. After all,
it’s a lot easier to keep a customer than to chase new ones.