Less is More in 2019 Advertising.

In a world of more, it’s tempting to keep adding on to your marketing strategy. But, as a wise man once said, “You cannot ride two horses with one ass”. Instead of adding tactics to keep up, it’s a stronger strategy to pinpoint and go deep, rather than “spray and pray”. Something critical that is often missed by even the most seasoned marketing vets, is mistaking goals and wish lists for a strategy.

A laundry list of goals is not a strategy. Good strategy finds new sources of strengths and weaknesses. Yes, weaknesses can and should be part of your strategy. Do your competitors have more budget? Good, that means your strength lies in creativity.  Don’t have good copywriters? Amazing, you can tap into your customers and fans to curate the best of the best. And so on.

Let’s talk more about less. The future of talent is changing quickly. Analytical thinking, initiative and ideation will overtake manual dexterity, time management and speaking abilities. If one of these becomes the talent of tomorrow, it’s the thinker with initiative and great ideas. Ideas, good ones, come from a proper diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent action.

Here are some things to consider when marrying “less” and tactical strategy:

Only use tactics that tap into the native advantages of advertising.

• Cut down the “push” and dial in the “pull” in social and content. It’s “social media”, not “sell me” media. Let your tribe do your selling.
• Go agnostic with demographics. Don’t assume a 70-year-old grandmother is not digitally savvy or does not engage with adventure travel. Allow the tools afforded to you to match your tribe based on their habits, their footprints.  More than ever, people are less stereo typical, don’t cut out opportunity by putting them in a box.
• Be cognizant of your “try-curious” efforts. For instance, the AI in programmatic is still in its infancy and cannot deliver on all that we imagine … yet. Even robots need time to learn and grow.
• Search is redefined, website SEO efforts are dying. The largest “search engine” is still Google, but in terms of search volume, YouTube and Facebook out perform in terms of people searching for things. The native advantage of search is shifting to where people spend the most time.

Your strategy should be singular.

• If your need is repair, then the strategy should be about compression. When Jobs re-joined an almost bankrupt Apple, he paired down products into one main computer and one laptop. He doubled down on advertising and associating the product with “cool”. No willy-nilly cut backs. Just a singular strategy that married scarcity and narrative psychology.
• If your desire is market-share, strategy should be about going further down the road in a narrow lane further than your competitors. When considering this angle, being the cheapest is not a strategy, it’s discounting your brand. Price customers are not loyal, and the churn affected will cost you more than it makes.
• One main strategy should permeate and coordinate policies and actions, organization wide and not just in your advertising plan.

This year don’t do more. Do better. 

Pair it down and go deeper than you think is possible.