Jeremy Pennycook wrote a piece for his graduate class that is published on MediaShift Idea Lab. I noticed one sentence that prompted me to respond here.
Despite some signs of life in the internet advertising market, the advent of more precise, dynamic metrics measuring clicks, page-views and engagement times has exposed the little secret journalism milked for years: advertising is not as effective as people thought.
I’ve been pointing out that better metrics are a goal. We want better metrics. But this sentence made me pause and wonder: are clicks and pageviews the only measurement of advertising effectiveness? Of course not. Big companies with lots of money were happy to spend money on advertising because their messages started to seep into the consciousness of the buying public. The almost subliminal effect of background noise creates brand awareness.
Pageviews and clicks give you a tangible idea of who is responding directly to your advertising; but I assert that there will still be a need for billboards and other “environmental” ads (as in “existing in a person’s environment” — not the green bandwagon everyone is getting on). For advertisers with deep pockets, this “blitzkrieg” on the consciousness could still pay off.