The growing trend of people consuming various forms of media at the same time, provides a lot of challenges for any type of marketer. We hear a lot about how it is having such a drastic affect upon traditional media; and that's true. But let's look at it from our way of doing things: If people are consuming media more than one at a time, how does that affect our online marketing strategies?
First, as I posted recently on another blog; from the traditional media way of operating, they must respond by marketing across various platforms with a campaign built for each specific medium. The majority of online marketers don't have the luxury of being able to do that.
The question that we must ask ourselves is whether we need to do it or not. If someone is surfing online and checking out our products or services, are we competing for their time if they have the television on at the same time or are talking on the phone? What about if they're doing more than one thing at a time online? For example, listening to an online radio station, or an offline one.
My thoughts on this are that online marketers are much less impacted by the trend of consumers multitasking than traditional media. When someone is online, it is interactive, and thus demands a certain amount of attention from the user. Things like TV and radio have been used for decades as background noise or filters of quietness. There is nothing to engage there.
While we do have to watch this somewhat, I don't think there is too much concern that traditional media will be the primary source of competition for online surfers attention. We have the upper hand in the multitasking scenario.
Do you have any concerns about traditional media in a multitasking world?
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