The Marketer's Apprentice

Two more signs that nothing stays the same:

The largest of the large marketers are now embracing sampling programs like never before.  Why is this interesting?  Sampling was once the tactic used by those who couldn’t afford large-scale advertising.  There are lots of implications here, but the one I find fascinating: what does this say about the waning efficacy of traditional Interruption Marketing?

Meanwhile, speaking of Interruption Marketing, there’s another chink in its armor – Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. Seems that six million prime time viewers have gone missing since last year this time.  So if ads are less effective, and there are fewer consumers viewing them, what’s a marketer to do?

Go Direct! No surprise … that’s sort of what we’ve been advocating.