{3:00 minutes to read} In the 1958 movie, The Blob, an old man wandering through the woods stumbles across an otherworldly, glowing liquid and starts poking at it with a stick. Defying gravity, the blob quickly travels up the stick to the old man’s arm, then completely engulfs and consumes him. The blob continues to grow and soon begins gobbling up entire towns, ultimately threatening all of humanity.
Is Digital, “The Blob” of marketing, consuming everything in its wake?
At roughly 25% of total U.S. ad spending in 2014, it may be too soon to crown digital as the “king of advertising,” particularly since TV and Cinema advertising still control the largest share. However, as shown in the ZenithOptimedia chart, “How advertising spending has changed in America,” digital has accounted for nearly all advertising growth since the 2008 recession.
Although growing rapidly, digital’s share of total advertising spend still lags significantly behind its massive 45% share of time spent on all media, per venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers’ Annual Internet Trends Report (see Slide 15).
But there is more to consider than time allocation – digital offers a huge advantage in terms of highly efficient targeting and measurability.
Two of the best examples of the effectiveness of digital marketing targeting are programmatic advertising and pay per click advertising:
> MDC Advertising, which specializes in programmatic advertising in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, recently ran a campaign for a client that yielded an ROI of 550% while conforming to all of the stringent regulatory guidelines placed on prescription drug advertising.
> The Times Square franchise Ripley’s Believe It or Not! saw a 35% uplift in sales in 2014 over the prior year as a result of their investment in search engine marketing. With the help of a local Search Engine Marketing Agency, NYC SEM, Ripley’s then used ecommerce analytics to identify the most effective campaigns. They cut their pay per click advertising spending in half while increasing sales another 13% over their 2013 sales.
Stay tuned for our next article, where we’ll dig deeper into how companies make the most out of their digital marketing budgets. Until then, be on the lookout for expanding digital technology and prepare yourself for the invasion.
Where do you see digital marketing taking us in the next five years? Reply in the comment section below or on social media. We look forward to continuing the conversation!
Michael Bendit
Managing Director
Software Development Resources Inc.
888-447-1591
1825 Madison Avenue, Suite 9E
New York, NY 10035
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