The Only Constant is Change
It’s always interesting to watch long standing industries struggle with disruptive advances in technology. Whether it is the newspaper industry trying to apply traditional offline advertising models to the Internet or the recording industry attempting to take the methods of marketing a physical product (CDs) and apply them to a purely digital product. In both cases, technology has completely disrupted a traditional business model and thrown the industry into a state of confusion.
As all of us in this industry know, performance based marketing is doing much the same thing to the traditional advertising model. It is getting harder and harder for old school ad agencies to justify their media buying recommendations when they provide limited or no ability to determine an actual return on their clients’ marketing investment. Advertisers have always wanted better ways to tie their marketing expenses to sales figures and performance based marketing has begun providing this connection.
While our industry is still growing and gaining both credibility and acceptance with a wider range of advertisers, we aren’t even close to catching up to traditional advertising in terms of spending. Of course, there will likely always be a valuable place for branding and awareness advertising for many companies – especially those that compete for mass audiences. However, over the next few years, the gap should continue to narrow as more advertisers scrutinize their bottom lines and look for marketing initiatives that are focused on generating sales rather than just awareness.
Innovation has been one of the keys to the success and growth of our industry, as online marketers have used the potential of the Internet to connect advertisers and customers in new ways. Perhaps the most important factor in our continued growth in 2009 and beyond will be the continuation of that drive to develop even more effective ways to help advertisers market their products.
While our industry continues to focus on innovation and growth, it is important to learn from the experiences of other industries that failed to keep pace with new ideas and technology. The lessons of the recording and newspaper industries demonstrate clearly that if you don’t find ways to embrace and adapt to disruptive new technologies you face a difficult future – no matter how innovative and prosperous you once were. Without new ideas, even the most successful industries and companies risk becoming obsolete.
