Week 13 Part 1 Researching Advertising

When looking at advertising on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram from similar companies to mine, I find that the posts or ads are very similar to mine. They have the same concept. Mine is for re-orderable products like poop waste bags and potty training pads. They may have those items or they may have collars or harnesses or kennels etc. But they are using photos of the products and some of theirs are modeled on dogs, but then they are just doing dog photos or videos as I am. Some choose different breeds, one is using dachshunds another is using a bulldog cartoon. Mine is Ridgebacks. The types of products we are selling aren't as glamorous as some other products, so it is hard to make them look fancy or pretty. So the appeal is to the dog owner and lover. I use other breeds in my posts too so as to not just pigeon-hole myself with just one breed. And I do use other posts of interesting items that are non-competing but that dog lovers would like or need. Or new innovations like a video of a new car that is totally built and focused on dogs needs. Product photos are necessary and I use mine to show the design on the bags and the sizes of pads. Because x-lg are harder to find in this size. The other "fun" photos of dogs playing or doing funny things are entertaining and people tend to love looking at them. But they don't sell the product, they just get them to keep coming back to your site.  A couple of large companies have paid ads on Facebook that pop up with the pads for instance, and have a CTA button to "shop now" at their website. Some even include pricing, or claims of being the best deal or least expensive. So they are more selling ads, not so much to build relationship.

I think Social Media ads are very effective because of the masses of people that are constantly on it, as long as the posts and ads are targeted and not just random products that have nothing to do with you. There are definitely times when things have caught my eye, maybe from a sports team I like for example and I'll take a look at their website to see what new t-shirts they have. Or other new products that you can click on and they'll give you an "infomercial" but the great thing is you can click off of it at any time. You can't do that with TV, except to change the channel. Otherwise you are stuck waiting for the ad to finish. TV I believe is one of the only as good or better forms of advertising that is effective. They have the benefit of moving pictures, videos, stills, text etc. whatever they want to use to get their message passed on. And people are clocked at watching hours of TV a day. Even if it's just on as background noise people are still hearing it and getting the message. Social Media is more focused attention, although most people are on it probably more hours a day now, they are quicker to scroll through and pass over ads in mere seconds. With TV, unless you can fast forward through ads with a DVR and many On Demand shows don't allow that anymore, you are stuck continuing through the whole ad. TV is also more mass marketed, although they can pick shows, dates and times to air, Social Media you can target much more closely to the exact audience you are looking to impress. I think magazines, newspapers and particularly direct mail are all declining and not as effective and not a great spend. Unless it is in a "dog" magazine, I wouldn't even consider it. And I also have been hit with the masses of emails you get when companies do email advertising and I always opt out of getting them. Because no matter how many they say they are going to send they end up sending way more than I want to receive. So I would stick with the appropriate Social Media sites and if I could afford targeted TV I would do that as well.