The Untapped Opportunities of Cross-Channel Marketing

Following a viewing of Gary Vaynerchuk’s inspiring keynote speech at Inc. 500 2011, several of his points resonated with me. One that was especially interesting was his criticism of the lack of effective cross-channel marketing. As Vaynerchuk notes, the modern television experience has changed dramatically in recent years. Nowadays, people regularly watch television with at least one other screen in front of them. How often do you find yourself in front of a television with your smartphone or laptop open in front of you? Some of Vaynerchuk’s audience even had three devices in use – laptop, smartphone AND tablet – now that’s excessive!

Vaynerchuk’s point was that this is how many evenings are spent at home, and the potential of this for marketers is being largely overlooked. While cross-channel marketing is common, with brands regularly directing people to their Facebook pages through print advertising or otherwise, there is a lack of incentive for people to act. How often has a television advert called you to action on another internet-enabled device? You’re regularly offered a hashtag or “find us on Facebook”, but how often has a marketer really made the effort to move you to action on a second device?

The only changes in this strategy are the tools now available to marketers. Nonprofits have been calling people to action through donation adverts for years. What has changed is that the Internet makes information instantly available and now you have the opportunity to give your audience more information and more content to establish a relationship before they are expected to make a donation.

Vaynerchuk cites one example of an advertiser extending the story past the commercial and earning themselves 62,000 fans on Facebook within twenty minutes. Reebok Hockey’s commercial, Sid vs Max vs Dryer, enticed viewers to action by showing the first half of a hockey scoring contest between Sidney Crosby and Max Talbot and then offering the conclusion on their Facebook page. Below are the original 30-second advert and the extended full version:

https://youtu.be/WD9mGYNbNpA https://youtu.be/lnwPAqMZmFQ

What is most appealing to me about Reebok’s marketing strategy is that there is no immediate sales pitch. Their aim is to build a fan base for their brand on social media. They incentivise people to engage with their brand by offering content – in this case it’s the conclusion to the contest – but they don’t immediately try to close a sale. Marketing is about building long-term relationships and social media is an excellent way of achieving this.

So why aren’t we inundated with similar incentives by every advert on television? The only explanation I can imagine is a lack of creativity. That or else everybody is skipping adverts altogether. As Vaynerchuk bemoans, people are watching television and “sitting there, waiting to be activated.” Have you been activated by an advert recently?

- Peter