Reinventing Traditional Channels For A Younger Audience

By Lynn Pearce de Freitas

I was thinking about the “old” and golden days of traditional direct marketing and wondered whatever happened to some of those brilliant ideas and campaigns – and are those ideas still working today? Has online marketing made it obsolete, or is it seeing a resurgence due to lockdown living?

Some of these ideas and concepts have moved online and been transformed into the native advertising space and are still working effectively today. I seldom see “As seen on TV” or “As seen in…” whatever magazine, catalog or publication it would have been featured. Even the “Limited Time Offer” seems to have disappeared!

Nowadays, most marketers tend to focus their campaigns predominantly online with their “go-to-market” strategies and exclude in a large part the traditional media, like TV, radio and direct marketing activities, mostly because their target market are all online permanently, in some way or another.

Lately however, I started reading a number of articles on traditional media channels, with even Google Trends highlighting the resurgence in direct mail and TV viewership, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in most of us experiencing living in lockdown over the past year. This experience has shifted consumer behaviour and attention away from the normal day to day, leaving home, going to work, children going to school, coming back home – and chilling and relaxing in front of the TV. Instead, we have all been stuck in our own homes for varied periods of time – and will be in and out of lockdown for the foreseeable future. Our consumers lifestyles have changed and we need to adapt to these changes and trends right now, as companies who are able to pivot their marketing and embrace the opportunities that come with the challenges will stand the greatest chance of thriving in these uncertain times.

The rise of direct mail once again is one of the continuing trends coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, not only because patterns of living and working have shifted, but because print itself seems more real, tangible and trusted. I read in a report in the Royal Mail MarketReach recently, that stated when the UK Government wanted to underline the importance of the initial lockdown, they chose to send a letter to every household. According to the research that followed, it demonstrably affected people’s behaviour – it literally brought the message home – and not just with older people! The biggest rise in engagement with mail came from people aged 18 to 34 – potentially because of the relative novelty of receiving post.

Direct mail also works with another trend coming out of lockdown over the past few months, as expanded on in a report by Gartner recently, the Covid-19 crisis has shifted CMOs’ focus away from customer acquisition – to customer retention and loyalty, mostly due to the economic climate and realizing the value to the bottom line of retaining and consolidating the existing customer base.

However, I believe that smart marketers can take it much further and should incorporate mail into all stages of the customer journey, working alongside other media channels to deliver maximum value, particularly during periods of lockdown, where mail can be a tangible acquisition media, putting your brand directly into customer’s hands. According to stats over the past year, 25% of customers purchase because of receiving mail at home, thereby driving conversion to your online business. You could also use this media for repeat sales, upselling, cross-sell marketing activities and even reduce churn, as 70% of customers say it makes them feel valued and drives loyalty to your brand.16% of customers will pass on the mail to relatives and friends, according to the same research stats.

Mail also drives word of mouth activity online through various social media channels, with customers sharing the information with friends and posting pics of the mail on social media.

Direct mail and follow up emails work very well together, as emails are great for delivering short, sharp messages and driving customers to your websites to take up special offers.

In the initial stages of lockdown, Radio was impacted negatively, as data has always shown us that radio is most used when people are outside of the home, driving to work, shopping, or taking children to school and back home again. Strangely enough, listenership has increased steadily over the past few months, albeit via streaming audio at home, which is now 60% higher than it was pre-Covid. Podcasts are also trending, so there is a big opportunity for marketers to include this media in their campaign activities for relatively low cost right now.

TV was taking quite a dive in viewership pre-Covid, obviously the pandemic changed that and the viewership habits of most audiences globally. Average daily consumption of OTT services, such as Netflix, literally doubled during the past year. TV advertisers are eager to reach these OTT viewers, who are also paying attention to linear TV more often during lockdown.

Now’s the time to explore unique ways of complementing your online marketing with traditional integrated offline activities, helping your brand stand out, now and in the future.

Read more from Lynn each month at Infinity Gaming Magazine