A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO PROMOTIONAL MEDIA

by Freddy J. Nager, Updated 24 February 2014

First, let's clarify the two different meanings of "promotion" in marketing:

1. In the marketing mix 4P's, promotion refers to any form of marketing communications.
2. Promotion also refers to discounts and other special offers to increase sales.

In this article, I will discuss the first definition — which is also what you'll plan in your final project. In particular, I
will discuss your options in various media, which are tools and methods you can use to communicate your
message.

Part I: Types Of Media

Today, there are many forms of promotional media. Some marketers also refer to them as "touchpoints," since
they consist of every way people encounter your brand. I'll describe a few in a Western context (which I know
best). Effectiveness and popularity of these media — and even how they are used — vary from country to
country, even neighborhood by neighborhood. In addition, what works for one industry or brand may not work for
other industries and brands. This is simply to provide you with an idea of the options; it's imperative that you adapt
the medium to what works best for your brand, your stakeholders, and your goals.

I. Traditional Media

Most people are familiar with these options, which are mostly used for basic advertising.

• Television: Generally the most expensive medium, not only to buy, but also to produce. For example, a
TV commercial during American football's Super Bowl costs about $3 million for 30 seconds, with the
commercial production costing another million dollars or so. The advantage of television is that it still
provides the largest possible audience condensed in a short time frame, so it is ideal if you need to create
a high level of awareness and reach specific goals by a certain deadline. Ad agencies love TV
commercials because they provide a lot of opportunities for creativity, and because they get a percentage
of the media cost.

• Radio: This is a classic medium, but it's critical to understand how your customers are using it before you
advertise on it. For example, this is a good way to reach drivers in their cars, though not if you expect
them to act immediately (such as making a phone call or writing something down).

• Print: Newspapers and magazines are declining in popularity, but they still reach an educated audience,
some of whom actually enjoy reading the ads. They are ideal if you have a lot to say, and you want a
more targeted readership (particularly business-to-business). You can also include forms and coupons in
print ads.

• Outdoor: This includes billboards, bus stops, posters and other out-of-home advertising. The purpose of
outdoor advertising is to create awareness, because you usually do not have the time or space in outdoor
media to communicate a lot of words. The effectiveness of outdoor advertising is also very difficult to
measure. Some governments restrict outdoor advertising as "visual pollution."

• In-Store and Point-of-Purchase (POP): Consumers make many of their purchasing decisions at the last
minute when they're at the store. In addition, some stores require marketers to buy in-store advertising if
they want their products to be carried or prominently displayed.

• Promotional Literature: This includes brochures, business cards, and other printed materials. These
may be referred to as "collateral."

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II. New Media

Considering that the first websites are over 20 years old, it's odd to refer to many of these media as "new." Some
marketers prefer to call these options "digital media." There's a lot of excitement about new media, since
consumers are spending a lot of time online, and the media are relatively inexpensive to produce. However, doing
new media properly often requires a large investment of time, talent, even money. I'll introduce the most popular
forms here, and will discuss social media more later in this unit.

• Websites: A website can serve as a promotion, place, and even product. (Consider this RKC website
you're using now.) Creating a website is easier and more affordable than ever, though some complex
websites can still require millions of dollars and several months of highly-skilled labor. The challenge with
websites is that, even though they serve as a promotion, they must be promoted themselves. You can't
just build it and expect customers to find it.

• Search Engine Optimization: This is an ongoing practice to make your website more easily found and
highly ranked by Google and other search engines. Since Google and other search engines keep their
algorithms (the formulas they use) secret, SEO experts conduct a lot of experiments to see what works.
In addition, Google changes its algorithm continuously to ensure that the most useful sites rise to the top,
and to prevent spammers from gaming the system. They assign each website a number, called a
"PageRank," to measure its value. To successfully execute SEO, you need to continuously research what
words and phrases (called "keywords") your potential customers use and to include those keywords on
your site; to make sure that your site is user-friendly, so that visitors spend a lot of time and visit a lot of
pages on it; and most importantly, to entice other websites to link to it. Google evaluates the number of
sites that link to you, and the "authority" (size and importance) of those sites. The number and value of
those links affects how your PageRank.

• Search Engine Marketing: You can also buy ads on search engines, which usually appear at the top
and down the right hand side of search results. These ads are also based on keywords. Marketers
usually pay per click (PPC) for these ads.

• Banner Advertising (also called Display Advertising): These are the small online ads you're familiar
with. If you click them, they will take you to a destination site. Marketers can pay per click (PPC) or pay
per 1000 views (CPM - the M stands for "mille"). The click-through rate on most banners ads is abysmally
low — less than 0.5% — so the PPC rates are increasing while CPM rates are decreasing. Most
consumers don't even notice banner ads anymore, and software exists to block them.

• E-mail Marketing: Nearly as old as the Internet itself, e-mail marketing has actually become more difficult
as countries pass laws to block spam. A more legal and effective form of e-mail marketing is the e-
newsletter, which enables the marketer to maintain touch with past, current and prospective customers,
while providing news and offers. I recommend e-newsletters for customers who are interested but not
ready to buy. That makes them ideal for business conferences and tradeshows.

• Videos: Videos will soon be as popular as photos on the Internet. They're more effective than banner ads
in attracting attention and getting people to spend more time with your brand (what marketers refer to as
"engagement"). However, the competition on YouTube and other popular video sites is incredibly
intensive, and often requires both a high level of creativity and the marketer to advertise the video itself.
Yes, your marketing needs to be marketed! Note: do not call these videos "viral videos" until they have
actually gone viral, which most don't.

• Social Networks: You're probably familiar with social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and
Twitter, whose primary purpose is to help people build relationships with each other. Marketers can buy
different forms of advertising on these sites. They can also create their own corporate profiles and try to
build relationships with potential customers and influential people (influencers), such as bloggers,
journalists, celebrities, politicians, and other popular, authoritative people.

• Mobile: Marketing on smartphones is perhaps the fastest growing promotional category, since there are
many more phones in use than computers, and people take their phones with them everywhere. Mobile
marketing can take the form of basic on-screen advertising; dedicated websites; text (SMS) ads; location-
based marketing (the marketer knows the user's GPS location, or the user registers that she is at a
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 certain location, and therefore she receives a customized message or offer); apps; and other
opportunities just now being created.

III. Direct Marketing and Sales

Also known as one-on-one marketing, direct marketing entails individual contact with prospective customers. It is,
therefore, relatively expensive per customer, and ideally suited for high-end products (like cars or insurance) or
business-to-business marketing.

• Direct Mail: Although this medium has declined because of the Internet, computerized databases have
made direct mail more effective by making each message more customized to the recipient's interests. As
people rely more on email and get fewer letters in the mail, these traditional paper-based messages are
actually increasing in effectiveness. Even Google sends out direct mail to target business customers.

• Direct Sales: Having individual sales people make calls and pitches to individual customers is usually the
most expensive form of marketing per customer. Customers also find it the most annoying. That's why
advertising was invented: to provide a more cost efficient and less invasive form of selling. However, as
those of you in business-to-business markets know, most big deals still require human contact,
relationship building, and negotiations. The need for skilled sales professionals is infinite. Since sales is
expensive, marketers should use other media to create awareness and even interest first. A fun book on
sales is "Selling the Wheel" by Jeff Cox & Howard Stevens.

IV. Public Relations and Partnerships

Most people do not trust what a company says about itself. They are more likely to trust a journalist (news media)
or a respected member of the community (an authority figure or other influencer). Getting positively mentioned in
the news media or by an authority can enhance a company's brand. It certainly gives new companies more
awareness and credibility.

Getting that journalist or authority to talk about your product — and to hopefully influence what they say about it
— requires a public relations expert. PR professionals work to "earn" the media (hence, PR is also called "earned
media"), and since the only cost is what you pay the PR professional, the earned media can be worth as much as
an ad. For example, if an ad costs $10,000 in a newspaper, then a product review by that newspaper is worth at
least that much, and much more if it's a positive review.

• PR (public relations/press relations): A good PR professional understands journalists and other news
media professionals, and has personal relationships with many of them. Some PR professionals are
former journalists themselves. Their job is to identify what would make an interesting story about your
company that the journalist would want to write about (journalists do not want to write ads). The PR
professional then writes a press release, which should sound just like a real news story. (Unfortunately,
most press releases are terrible, and sound more like ads.) They then personally contact the right
journalists and news media, and pitch the story to them. However, PR professionals cannot guarantee
any coverage, or whether that coverage will be positive or negative. The payoff of good PR is high, but
that means the risk is also high. If you want control, then you have to buy traditional advertising like
everyone else.

• Blogger and Influencer Outreach: Thanks to the Internet, some writers of blogs (web-based journals)
and some users of Twitter and Facebook have more power and influence than many journalists. These
are individuals, so they can't be treated like the news media. They don't want press releases — they want
relationships with people they like. Consequently, marketers need to invest time in getting to know them
before asking them to promote any product.

• Grassroots Operations and Street Teams: This involves sending people into the community to discuss
the product and company, but without direct selling. They are usually used for political marketing, charity
work, or health services, though they might be used to stir up excitement for a fun product, like a sports
team, movie, fashion line, or rock concert.

• Partnerships: One of the most effective forms of promotion is to form a partnership with another
organization, particularly one that has a strong brand and a large, loyal customer base. That's why many
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 businesses form partnerships with charities and other nonprofits: the business brings financial and
professional resources; the nonprofit brings a likeable brand and a loyal base of supporters. At the same
time, we see many partnerships between major corporations, such as Nike working with Apple. By
sharing their marketing ("cross-promotions" or "co-promotions"), they share costs, customers and brand
equity. The partnerships also make a good story to share with the news media and in social media. The
risk is one partner doing something wrong, which could hurt the other partner's reputation.

V. Event and Experiential Marketing

This category involves setting up live events for customers (and other stakeholders) to experience and interact
with your brand.

• Conventions and Conferences: Even though almost all information can be conveyed on the Internet,
companies still pay large sums of money to appear at conventions and conferences. That's because
human interaction is still important in business, and marketers know that buyers, journalists, potential
employees, and other key stakeholders will be present in one location. Being present at an event can also
enhance a brand's credibility. For consumers, a convention or trade show provides an opportunity to
discover new products without the sales pressure of a retail store. Booths and displays at these events
can be extraordinarily expensive, and are highly competitive. They require a high level of planning,
creativity, and pre-event promotion. Smart marketers make sure customers are aware of their booths, and
provide incentives to visit, long before the event takes place.

• In-store demonstrations: Product sampling, fashion shows and other in-store experiences are
expensive, but have the advantage of occurring at the place of sale. For restaurants and retailers,
experiential marketing might involve providing entertainment, a celebrity presence, or some other live
experience to attract customers and keep them longer.

• Festivals, concerts, games: Major sporting and entertainment events, such as the Olympics, are
providing more and more opportunities for brands to participate. Although these opportunities are
expensive, they enable companies to interact with people in a festive (and spending) mood, while sharing
in the brand equity of the event. Although sales are generally not pushed at such events, the key
advantage is to make the brand memorable and likeable.

VI. Other Media

There are many more forms of promotions than I can describe in one article. I'll just list three more categories you
may hear about.

• Branded Content and Merchandise: Everyone is familiar with pens, T-shirts, and other merchandise
with corporate logos on them (also nicknamed "tchotchkes" or "shwag"). Branded content takes the form
of books, music, games, YouTube videos and other entertainment media (even entire sports teams)
based on a company's brand. The most famous may be BMW's "Driver" series of short films.

• Guerilla Marketing: These promotions are extremely creative and unusual, so they grab public attention.
This might include professional graffiti, dancing "flash mobs" in a train station, interactive billboards, chalk
drawings on the sidewalk, or whatever your imagination can create. They require a lot of creativity and
planning (including legal clearances with city authorities), but the reward is a boost to the brand, coverage
in news media, and perhaps a "buzz" on social networks. An old but excellent book on the topic is "Under
the Rader" by Jonathan Bond & Richard Kirshenbaum.

• Product Placement: Product placement involves featuring a product in a movie, television show, or
some other entertainment medium. Many consumers find this annoying, but it's a growing form of
promotion, since association with celebrities and popular entertainment helps brands. It's most effective
for music (theme songs of movies sell a lot of albums) and fashions (having celebrities wear the clothes).
Automotive and soft drink brands are frequently seen in entertainment media. An excellent (and
entertaining) documentary on the topic is "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold."

As I said, this is just a brief introduction to the wildly diverse world of promotional media. One critical strategy to
remember is integration. Integrated marketing communications involves making sure that all of your promotional
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media work together to serve a common goal, audience, and brand. For example, let's say you are marketing
Robert Kennedy College. You could...

1. run an ad in The Economist magazine, which directs readers to

2. a Facebook page, and that page features
3. a video by Dean Costa on CNBC (the result of a PR promotion), and at the end of the video he mentions
that he will be at a
4. conference in London, where visitors can meet him and other RKC people at a special booth, where they
can
5. sign up for the school's e-newsletter, which mentions the ad in The Economist

All these touchpoints would share a common design, voice, and purpose. They would help reinforce awareness of
the RKC brand, while promoting each other.

VII. A Quick Note About Word-Of-Mouth (WOM)

Note that I did not include WOM as a media option, so please do not include it any assignment or plan. That's
because WOM isn't really a form of media — it's a desired outcome. While you may get customers as a result of
referrals, those referrals likely originated with another medium. For example, the number one inspiration of tweets
on Twitter is television. Or consider this hypothetical example: a customer sees an ad on TV, tries your product,
then tells a friend. So as a marketer, you should include the TV ad and the product experience as part of your
plan, and not count on WOM.

Indeed, relying on WOM is a recipe for disaster, since WOM means the exact same thing as "gossip." You can't
predict what people will gossip about, and whether what they say will be positive or negative. Most products never
get gossiped about at all. If you have a new brand of toothpaste, it better be extremely remarkable to get people
to talk about it. That's why toothpaste marketers use traditional advertising and give free samples to influencers
(dentists).

While social media supports WOM, even the giant social networks resort to other media when they have
something important to say. Both Twitter and Facebook email me when they need to market their advertising
services — they don't rely on their own networks to do the marketing!

So it's perfectly fine to hope that you will get WOM, and you should do everything you can to generate
conversations about your brand, and you should do everything you can to influence that conversation, but never
trust it to do all the work for you.

Part Two: Making the Selection

As you can see, there are as many marketing-media options as there are colors, and the same rule applies to
both: just because one exists doesn't mean you have to use it. You don't have to use Facebook anymore than
you have to use blue. Rather, you should pick the colors and media that are right for your business and your
market. Below are a few frameworks to help you evaluate and select media.

Please note that edia planning and buying is a profession, which you can study in books such as "Advertising
Media Planning" by Jack Z. Sissors and Roger B. Baron. My goal is to teach you the basics for creating simple
plans, or for supervising the work of your employees, consultants, and agencies.

VIII. Set Your Objectives: The 3B's

I created the 3B's framework to make sure my clients consider the major outcomes of any marketing campaign.
Before you start your campaign, and during the development, ask these questions, and do be critical and honest.
(It amazes me how many marketers lie to themselves.)

• Brand: HOW will your campaign affect the image and reputation of the company? HOW will it
differentiate your brand from the competition? Your brand is your company's most valuable possession.
(In personal terms, consider what your reputation means to you.) Do not select any media that can hurt
your brand, or that can't support your brand goals. To measure the effect of a campaign on your brand,

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 you will likely need to conduct surveys. You can also judge your brand's value by how much customers
are willing to pay for your product.

• Buzz: WHY would your target customers talk about your campaign in this medium? WHY would the news
media report on your campaign? Be realistic on what generates word-of-mouth and news in today's over-
saturated market. Remember, you're not just competing against your direct competitors for your market's
time and attention; you're competing against EVERYTHING ELSE in the world. Today, buzz easier to
measure, since most social networks provide data on how much buzz you are generating.

• Behavior: WHAT do you want people to do in reaction your campaign, now and in the long term? WHAT
will you do to measure the connection between your campaign and that behavior? For example, we want
all of our media to ultimately generate sales, but what can you do to prove how many sales came from,
say, your YouTube video and how many came from your magazine ad?

Once your campaign is complete, use these 3B's to evaluate each medium and the campaign as a whole. It's also
good practice to use the 3B's to evaluate your competitors' media.

II. Plan Each Stage Of The Purchase Funnel: AIDA+

The AIDA purchasing funnel was created over 100 years ago to plan sales strategies. The funnel can also help
you select media, messages, and goals for each stage of the customer's progress.

Your market is shaped like a funnel because there are more prospective customers at the top (the awareness
stage), and fewer when it comes to the end (the action, most
likely a purchase). Note that there is one more very important
stage not pictured here, and that is Satisfaction. First, let's go
through the stages in order.

A = Awareness or Attention: Your target market must know

that you exist before they will even look for you. Now, there's a
chance that your website and social media will appear when
customers search for something general on Google: for
example, RKC may appear when someone searches for
"online MBA," so they become aware of RKC's existence. Of
course, this requires effective search engine optimization that
appears during the search. But what if you have an entirely
new product in a new category, and nobody is searching for it?
Or what if you compete in a very congested market, and your
SEO doesn't put you near the top? That's why marketers pay
for ads and reach out to influencers (celebrities, journalists,
and other people who already have a lot of fans and followers).
While there's a chance that social media can create some
awareness, that chance is extremely slim, particularly if your product is not particularly exciting. For example, your
friends might talk about a new brand of toilet paper, but the odds are greater that they will never do so. Please
remember that neither websites nor social media do a good job of creating awareness for most people
and organizations. So for awareness, think advertising, public relations, and other aggressive media.

I = Interest: A promotion might attract attention or create awareness, but it also needs to make people interested
in learning more. For example, you can't avoid noticing a pop-up banner ad that blocks your view of a website:
awareness achieved! But it will likely create annoyance instead of interest. Indeed, online ads have become so
annoying that software now exists to block it (see Adblock Plus). One of the reasons many promotions fail to
generate interest is that they're poorly targeted: the customer is a bad fit for the product. For example, I frequently
see ads telling me to get a B.A. Obviously, an ad from another university attracts my attention, but since I already
have a B.A. and an M.B.A., I have zero interest in the ad. The promise of online advertising, particularly social
media, is that ads would be better targeted based on user interests. Unfortunately, most online ads are still off
target. So as a marketer, you must make sure your promotions reach the right target customers, and that they
attract attention without annoying the viewer. This requires a combination of science (targeting) and art (crafting
compelling messages). Once people are interested in you, that's when they will visit your store, or explore
your social media and websites. In fact, social media and websites are excellent destinations for people who

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see your ad in traditional media and want to learn more, but are not yet ready to buy. Your social media and
websites should give them the information they need to fuel their interest.

D = Desire: Even if a campaign attracts a target customer's attention, and they're interested in learning more, it
has to create desire for that product. For example, when you were researching graduate programs, you likely had
interest in a few universities, but you probably only wanted to attend only a few. (Notice how the funnel keeps
getting more narrow.) Creating desire is truly an art form, and it requires emphasizing strong benefits that
are relevant to that customer, and differentiating your product from the competition. Testimonials (what
other people say) also matter here, so marketers will use ratings, reviews, and case studies to convince
customers that their product is something desirable. That means your job also includes getting people to provide
high ratings, enthusiastic reviews, and case studies that you can share on your site and social media, and that
they will share on their websites and social media. Your LinkedIn profile, for example, should have
recommendations from your teachers, classmates, and bosses to make prospective employers actually want to
hire you.

A = Action: Converting a prospect from simply wanting something to actually buying it is the greatest challenge. I
might want to own an island in the Bahamas, but given my wealth level, I can't do so right now. I might want to
lose weight, but I'm too lazy to exercise. Customers postpone their actions, sometimes for years (or forever). So
keep in mind that immediate sales aren't the only option for action: sometimes, you simply want a prospective
customer to escalate their actions from low commitment to high commitment. Low commitment actions for target
customers who have an interest or desire in you is to encourage them to follow you on social media or sign up for
your newsletter. (Excellent options for trade shows.) Those media should then gradually encourage your users to
take higher commitment actions, like visiting a store or actually making a purchase. To compel action, ads
should have a clear and specific call to action that explicitly tells the audience what to do: "visit our
website for more information" or "tell a friend." Sometimes, an incentive is required to compel the action, such as
a special discount or a sense of urgency (limited supplies or rapidly approaching deadlines). All marketing should
gradually funnel customers to where the purchase can be made, online or off. That's why marketers make a big
mistake when they send customers from the purchase location (usually the website) to their social media. Social
media serves interest, desire, and satisfaction — not the all-valuable action itself!

S = Satisfaction: A critical time for any brand is immediately after a customer buys the product. There's an
experience called "buyer's remorse," where the customer questions her decision, and wonders if she should have
purchased something else, or just saved her money. (Did any of you feel that after signing up for graduate
school?) Other customers have questions or product issues. That's why it's important for companies to
provide after-sales service and support. Social media is ideal for that. Keep in mind that, with social media,
customers can and will evaluate you online for the world to see. While you can't control that review, you can
certainly influence it with the quality of your service AND how you communicate with the customer. Companies
are using blogs, Twitter, Facebook pages, on-site Q&A forums, newsletters, email, and other digital media to
respond to the needs of current customers. Ideally, your post-purchase service and communications result in
referrals and recommendations from customers, as well as loyalty, repeat purchases, and more expensive
purchases in your product line. For example, if you are advertising to current customers, you might try to
encourage them to consume more of your product ("Try Diet Coke for breakfast"), or support you during quiet
times ("Visit Dubai in the summer" or "Visit Denmark in the winter"). Note that advertising can also create
satisfaction: by portraying an attractive image of the product, customers feel better about their purchase — even
proud of it. In other words, your job as a marketer is never done (which is great for job security).

Key note: Not all customers follow each step of AIDA+: they might start with Awareness and Interest with one
product, then decide they don't like it and go back to searching for other products. Some customers never get to
Action. And some go immediately from Awareness to Action if the purchase is easy and affordable (such as
buying a new song they just heard online).

AIDA+ can also apply to each medium within a campaign. For example, once someone visits a website, AIDA+
might be applied to promote different products within it.

IX. Apply Selection Criteria

Now that you're thinking of each stage of the purchase funnel, consider the various media options. You still have
a lot of choices, and you can't afford to do them all, so you need to narrow them down using various criteria.

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For example, let's say you hear about a new medium that's creating a lot of excitement, such as Snapchat. It's
attracting millions of users, including prominent brands and celebrities. Should you just jump in with your
marketing time and money? Or should you stick with advertising on the radio? Here are some criteria to help you
judge that new medium.

• Appropriate: Is the medium a good fit for your business and your target market? First, you have to
determine whether your target customers are using that medium — or can even access it. Not all media
are accessible in all countries, even if they are global in nature. Second, you have to determine whether it
suits your brand. Many marketers avoid media that are controversial, such as anything pornographic or
too "juvenile."

• Affordable: This isn't just a matter of financial costs. Many online media are "free" to use, but they
require a sizable time investment before they start showing returns. Estimate how many hours it will
take for you to achieve your goals in that medium, and what your labor cost is per hour. In addition,
estimate your opportunity costs, particularly if you are an entrepreneur or executive who likes to do
everything yourself. What could you be doing with your time if you weren't spending it on that medium?

• Timely: While looking at the time investment a medium requires, consider also your deadlines and what
you need to achieve by then. Many online media require many weeks or even months to reach "critical
mass" (the minimum number of users needed to start generating business results). If you have a large
quarterly sales goal, or an expensive product that needs to recoup costs quickly, then you might have to
opt for more visible paid advertising than waiting for an audience to develop (for, say, a YouTube video or
Facebook Page). Social media and SEO can take a very long time to develop, so don't rely on it if you
have a tight calendar.

• Practicable: Beyond time and money, the media must also fit your company's capabilities. For example,
if you don't like to write and you don't have a writer on staff, then a regular blog is not practicable. And
while anyone can make a video and upload it to the Internet using a phone, a low quality video reflects
poorly on your brand — particularly now that consumers are used to seeing first-class production values
in online videos from marketers. An important rule: if you don't have the time or talent to execute a
medium properly, then it's better not to do it at all. Never hurt your brand!

• Measurable: Affordability also includes what you're getting for your money. This means you need data to
reflect the value of your activities in that medium. Many online media offer data that has no direct
relevance to your business, such as the number of "followers" and "likes." You have to be able to show
how those numbers convert into meaningful business results, such as sales. In addition, be careful about
any media that simply offer "awareness," "branding," and "engagement," unless they quantify it and show
you exactly whom you're reaching. There is a lot of fraud online when it comes to data like "views" and
even "clicks" — some perpetrated by unethical competitors, some by the media company itself.

• Manageable: Marketers should leave as little to chance as possible, otherwise you are simply gambling.
Any media that relies on "word of mouth" (WOM) is a gamble. You need to invest in starting and
influencing the conversation, likely through paid media and active participation, as well as strict control
over your own generated messages.

• Social: Realizing that WOM is a gamble, many companies still want to have the potential to go viral. That
means the media must be easily shared. Videos, for example, are frequently shared online; display ads
are not (most people do not bother to screen-grab, edit, and share ads they see). Social behavior also
requires an INTERESTED community. A site may have a lot of users, but unless they actively engage in
the content, then going viral will be difficult. Twitter, for example, has many users who simply tweet but
never even read the tweets of the people they "follow." Many Facebook Pages have a lot of "likes," but
the average Page has an engagement (participation) rate of less than 1%! You'll need to invest a lot of
time and money into generating a critical mass of likes — time and money that might have been better
invested elsewhere.

These frameworks are just a start. A marketer needs to conduct more in-depth analysis, experiment and test
(which I consider the best option), and negotiate more advantageous deals with the media owners. That said, if
you use these frameworks, you will be doing much more than most marketers today.