1980 called. They want their traditional marketing back.
Traditional marketing has its place in today’s media landscape, but why does so much seem to implement digital elements as an afterthought?
So much of what we do in our day-to-day lives exists online, and so much of our marketing efforts are tailored for such a digital audience. For some, those who live in the more traditional space of marketing, the adjustment to this new digital age has been … challenging to say the least.
But how long can traditional marketing last, and just how well can digital marketing be combined with digital efforts?
In a rather interesting development, we have seen quite the resurgence of the humble QR code over the last 12 or so months. While this resurgence was primarily born out of necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it shows that there may still be a time and place to mix digital with traditional advertising.
While the ways in which society consumes media has changed more in the last 20 years than it has at any other point in history, so much of today’s marketing still seems to be stuck in the past — fixated on marketing efforts of days gone by.
If we think about the QR code for a minute, what is its purpose in marketing? It is pretty simple: to take consumers from offline to online.
However, in the case of the QR code, it is so often misused, with codes placed on traditional marketing spaces where they make no sense or are inaccessible. It is a perfect example of how traditional marketing so often fails to integrate digital elements practically, often seeming like an afterthought or incredibly disjointed.
Digital and traditional marketing can (and do) work together. However, when traditional marketing attempts to jump on the digital marketing bandwagon without any real planning or reason, that is where things start to go wrong.
Yes, keeping up with trends is important in the world of marketing, but simply funnelling your marketing efforts into a particular digital channel because it is popular or trending is a recipe for disaster.
Authenticity is key to succeeding in the competitive digital world. Consumers are more accustomed to advertising than ever before, and they can smell when an ad doesn’t belong a mile away.
