As the media guy at Fleming Creative Group advertising agency in South Carolina, I traditionally spend my mornings sifting through print media kits, rate cards, online marketing opportunities and specs for billboard sizes.  And let us not forget the customary cup of coffee and apple fritter.  

        But my mornings have transformed over the years.  While the coffee and pastries remain a cornerstone of my morning ritual, it’s the media opportunities that I review that have changed.  I’ve been listening to print advertising sales reps pining over the death of their medium for years; it’s nothing new.  But newspaper publishers nationwide have fought valiantly against their own demise, and done a great job embracing online display media and paid advertising.  Many publications have simply thrown in the towel, shut down the printers and gone digital, coasting into town on the fumes of online advertising dollars.  The New York Times has been threatening to do this for years.  But the papers with the ability to adapt quickly to an ever-changing media landscape are the ones who still thrive in the world of news and the ad dollars that come with it.  Others have shriveled up and died, left for dead in the flooded abyss of newsprint.  And while electronic communications have transcended the print realm for years, the sad slow decline seems to be moving along much faster these days. 

       Tablets and digital readers are being released at alarming rates, not to mention the apps that make every day life easy, fun and exciting.  According to Rupert Murdoch, the development of media apps could very well be the one thing that saves news & journalism.  But its not the journalism itself that we’re talking about, it’s the newspapers continuing to grease up the printer that is of concern here.    
      
        I’ve replaced my morning newspaper with the USA Today app on my iPad.  I shop online for furniture, golf clubs and electronics.  And when its time to cozy up to a good book I simply make an iBook purchase and start reading.  We live in a world of instant gratification and consumer behavior is now built around accessibility. 

       Oh, the times they are a-changin’. 

         So the question now becomes “where do I spend my limited advertising dollars in a slow recovering economy?”

         Print publishers everywhere have been attempting to adapt their sales models by unveiling new and improved websites, partnering with web portals and search engines like Yahoo! to create behavioral targeted marketing campaigns for their advertisers.  All very impressive and valuable to brands everywhere.  But what happens when new and traditional paid advertising begins to lose ground to earned media?  It took years for marketers to figure out how to monetize social media.  And now that we’ve done that (sort of), earned media and “social branding” have emerged as viable strategies.  Twitter and Facebook have come a long way with their search functions allowing businesses to set up Fan Pages and Twitter accounts that, with the right mix of information and keyword-friendly posts, can be easily found. 

        Earned media is an approach that is founded on promotional marketing, ambassador programs and loyal followers.  So your customers now have the ability to write “You Suck” on your Facebook Page.  Take it with a grain of salt.  Your social media followers have now become a focus group that you don’t have to pay.  Listen to them, learn from them, adapt and Wow them at every turn.  The idea of “building your brand” will never die, but the execution will always be evolving.  Don’t worry, it won’t cost you a penny.  And that, my friends, is what has print publishers cringing. 
           
        Some newspapers have finally caught up with and adapted to consumer behavior and remained the marketing “middle-man” for brands and their customers.  But the newest trend in advertising these days has become the development of apps that allow us to shop in virtual stores, find the hottest deals and the closest restaurants.  Information is now at our fingertips 24 hours a day all without the help of magazines, newspapers and postcards.  The message to print?  App-up or go home.  And even when they do so, they're battling in the trenches with other apps that challenge the very content of their app.  BBC America and USA Today are among the most highly downloaded free apps in the United States.  So they dodged that first digital bullet.  Sadly, I’m afraid earned media is a bullet that won’t be so easily avoided.

         Publishers and media companies aren’t going to just fade into the sunset, but watching them beg, borrow and steal for a piece of the pie should prove entertaining for a while.  At least until I’m done with my coffee and fritter.    

follow Todd on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1805492308

So you're getting ready to promote your business or service with a billboard.  And you're dying to ask your media buyer, planner or outdoor sales rep the big question:  do billboards work?  Unfortunately, there's no easy answer to such a simple question.  
Let's start with basic history: the lithograph was invented in 1794 and gave us the ability to print messages on paper.  Only governing bodies and royalty had access to the first lithograph posters, so they would publicize any changes in law, post sketches of wanted criminals and invite all the villagers to the gallows for a good ol' fashioned be-heading.  Mass promoting through print was officially born.  By the 1830's lithograph technology was available to most businesses who had the money to afford it. Circuses traveling throughout the United States were among the first to promote their products and services through posters and outdoor advertising.  Somewhere along the line our advertising forefathers came up with the idea of "branding".  Which brings us to the present day and a less-simple question: how is outdoor advertising going to survive in an era of unimaginable technology?  
Simple. 
Since 1794, we still haven't changed how billboards and posters promote our business.  A billboard is a billboard is a billboard.  Outdoor advertising is easily one of the simplest forms of marketing that exists.  The concept of buying "space" and putting a message in that "space" is about as old-school as it gets in this business.  And in reality,putting a message in "space" is the cornerstone of what we do.  
But in a world so transformed by the internet, social networking, cell-phones, instant messaging and google, we feel like our vehicles for marketing should always be getting faster, easier to use, and adapting.  Yet a billboard is still just a big vinyl ad staring back at you on the highway.  It always has been and it always will be.  

As a media buyer and advertising consultant, I've never told a client to hitch their wagon to outdoor advertising.  Let's face it, all the fancy presentations by billboard reps don't change the fact that in most markets 70% of consumers who see your billboard already saw it yesterday on the way to work.  And the day before that.  Not to mention the fact that they'll see it again on Saturday on their way to Billy's soccer game.  The idea of branding tells us that our brand will be burned into the memory of those who see your board so often.  Unfortunately, branding has fallen into the shadows of "direct response" over the years and we're more concerned with reaching as many different consumers as possible instead of the same consumers over and over.  The days of a giant billboard with the Burma Shave logo on it are long gone.  Branding has since been replaced by homebuilders giving us directions on how to get to their community,  the local attorney offering uncontested divorce settlements for $200, and McDonald's assuring us that the McRib is only going to around through the end of July (while supplies last).  As advertisers we are now asking our audience to respond: turn right ahead, divorce your husband, hurry in for a high-cholesterol sandwich that is shaped like baby back ribs.  And that is where we must tread lightly and be very careful.  When you begin asking consumers to actually "do something", it had better be simple and brainless.  If you have a long URL posted, let's hope its easy to remember because no one is going to get out a pen and write it down at 60 mph.  Give them a phone number to remember?  Forget it.  
We cannot expect something as simple as a billboard to adapt to technology and all the things that make our lives easier.  We as advertisers are the ones that need to adapt our messaging to changing times.  Wouldn't it be easier to ask a driver to send a quick text and receive updated information on your product than to write down a phone number or address?  Or design an eye-catching graphic or image that makes consumers actually remember your product so that they can Google it when they get home?  
Unless you're a hotel chain that is simply asking travelers to "Exit Now" for a $39 room, creating a responsive message for a billboard takes creativity as well as logic.  
So, do billboards work?  Well, that question begs a much bigger question: what are you asking of your audience?  

We realize that Bluffton, SC is a tad off the beaten trail. We like it that way; we find small town life extremely charming. But that means it's doubly important we keep on our toes and in touch with what's going on in the great big world of advertising and design. Sometimes that world visits our neck of the woods—the upcoming Geekend event in Savannah in a couple weeks' time, for instance. But more often we go to it, like I did earlier this month when I travelled to Chicago to attend An Event Apart, an intense two-day web design and development conference. My brain is buzzing with ideas to explore—using concept models rather than site plans as the base of a site's architecture, JavaScript libraries to equalize the browser playing field, and selective CSS3 attributes to improve a site's look and function. I was witness to a pronouncement on the slow death of plug-ins (including Flash!) over the next two years, and I watched bemusedly as speaker after speaker hammered home the importance of modular design. Can't wait to get started implementing some of these ideas!

 South Carolina's $16 billion tourism industry began to show signs of life following the Labor Day weekend.  Since Fleming Creative Group has a vast history of Resort Marketing in South Carolina, we've been monitoring the tourism in our markets quite closely this year.  And to our delight, Hilton Head saw a 7.5 percent increase in room occupancy so far this year according to Smith Travel Research.  Hilton Head was not alone in gaining momentum as Charleston was up 2.5 percent and Myrtle Beach up 1.4 percent from last year.  

With the positive outlook on tourism in our area, we've been ramping up our overall consumer advertising in South Carolina and more notably our client's efforts for marketing in Hilton Head, Charleston, and Myrtle Beach.  With print rates staying relatively the same at many of our major newspapers and publications in these markets, there is obviously more value in advertising our clients when we know there will be a major influx of tourists.  

This ideology couldn't be more true than with our retail marketing efforts.  Many of the retailers we represent feel much more comfortable allocating dollars for print, radio and broadcast marketing in South Carolina when tourism is strong.  And while we're not quite back to the glory days of American travel and tourism, the recent spike in travel is good news for thousands of small businesses on the Carolina coast.  

Our Email Marketing Consultants here at Fleming Creative have also noticed a higher email opening-rate with several of our recent vacation resort e-blasts.  Yet another sign that vacationers are more willing to travel this year.  For a glimpse at how FCG can help your business get in front of potential tourists and consumers in your market visit us at www.fcgadvertising.com