SUMMARY: Headlines are written to get attention, but the content under these headlines is often full of misinformation and pure bullshit. Marketers have been taken in by so called “experts” who use these headlines to enhance their personal brands. Every product category and customer segment has different parameters and brands need to identify how to really “talk” to their customers and prospects. Here are the list of the biggest marketing frauds that made headlines in 2018.
1ne: Big data will help us get closer to our customers. Big data has not lived up to the hype of its promise. All it has done is produced a lot of Power Point Decks that people have a problem analyzing and implementing.
2wo: Content is king. There is already too much content on the web for people to digest so the idea of adding more content may not be appropriate for your brand.
3hree: We need digital marketing. There is a direct correlation between the buying process and the use of digital in the process of a consumer becoming a customer. Digital may not be a key component if you’re marketing soup, but it is a key component for more expensive items like electronics, bikes and cars.
4our: We need social media marketing. Social media marketing or social media advertising? You need social media to listen, but consumers are growing tired of ads on social media.
5ive: Chatbots are becoming a big part of marketing. Really? You might want to look at services like DirecTV and others who use chatbots. Consumers don’t like them, they want to speak to a REAL person who can solve THEIR problem.
6ix: Programmatic advertising is “the way to go” in 2019. It’s estimated that programmatic advertising will account for 80 percent of all digital display advertising in 2017 .Yet,, recent headlines and pronouncements by leading brand marketers highlight the significant limitations and potential pitfalls of programmatic.. Among other issues, this technology–driven ad buying process has resulted in notable,, image–sensitive ads for brands appearing within or alongside offensive rich media content, fake news,, as well as non–contextual and inappropriate online channels.
Programmatic buying is geared toward high volume , “awareness” campaigns, that are proven to be less effective than strategic relevant placements. In addition, programmatic buying comes with an exceptional risk of fraud. The ease of programmatic buying means that, essentially, anyone can buy and anyone can sell. This leaves an open playing field for bad actors. The most common examples of ad fraud are: Bot traffic(i.e. non-human automated plays, clicks, etc.) and non-viewable ads (ex. An interstitial or video is buried in a feed somewhere and the user never actually even sees it). In 2014, boat traffic accounted for 56% of all website traffic and cost the industry about $6.3 billion. One of the biggest reasons ad fraud is rampant is because it’s not exactly illegal, which means low-risk and high-potential for scammers.
The best marketers are the ones who really know their customers and prospects and can look at their brands like a consumer and ask “what’s in it for me?”. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] The so called “social media experts” who all told us that we need to be on social media a couple of years ago did so for one reason; to enhance their personal brands.[/inlinetweet] They owe a lot of people an apology.
