Connecting Your Cause: Don’t Overlook Print, Radio, and TV
#1 Thing You Need to Know from This Post:
Like a major city that needs many transportation options, your cause’s community will take a wide variety of communication options.
A More Detailed Exploration:
Through my years of travel, I’ve been to many different communities, large and small. Each one offering a unique experience of community. This past week, my family and I spent a few days in Chicago for some end of summer fun.
Like most cities, it is a large patchwork of neighborhoods and communities that feed a central downtown core. As I looked out of my hotel room window from the north bank of the Chicago River onto “The Loop”, as it’s known, I snapped the picture you’re looking at now to help illustrate a point.
One Destination, Many Routes
During my stay, I witnessed people enter “The Loop” by biking, walking, driving a car, riding a bus, taking a taxi, riding the “L”, taking a water taxi, and riding commuter rail.
Even with the introduction of new technology, a thriving community needs to have many options to make it easy for more people to live, work, and play there. This is true whether you are talking transportation or communication.
Despite (or because of) all the hype about online and social media, your cause needs to keep a balanced approach for how you connect and engage people to your efforts.
If you have any doubts of the continued importance of print and other traditional media, take a moment to read Anne Mai Bertelsen’s well written MediaPost guest blog post about Boomers and their media usage. In it, she lays out eye-opening data underscoring the importance of a balanced approach.
A few key points hit me squarely in the head. Boomers spend most of their “screen time” watching TV, are the largest demographic listening to the radio (76%), and spend over 100 minutes per day reading print. And the point not to miss:
Typically, traditional advertising triggered their online search. (from Anne Mai Bertelsen’s MediaPost guest blog post)
Looking for Examples of Balanced Approached
So I throw the discussion over to you now. Which causes are doing well in keeping the balance between traditional and new media? How can we navigate this fundament shift?
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@scottyhendo
Ha! Scott, either everyone’s on vacation or people forget what traditional media is. Seriously, though, the reason non-profits and marketers want to think about an integrated approach — which should include speaking, attending events where people who are passionate about making a difference congregate — is because one channel is not enough. People consume media differently — and its important to know who is consuming what, when and how so that you can use those channels effectively.
Some multi-media campaigns I love include Doctors Without Borders’ recent refugee awareness campaign. It has both online and offline components, art installations, direct mail and downloadable PDF forms. Of course, there was my favorite (okay, full disclosure, it was my client), American Express’ Members’ Project which used online, email, direct mail, television as well as grassroots efforts.
Starbucks’ coffee for voting used newspaper as well as online and in store promotions. And, of course, there is the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer which uses multiple media sources including radio and cable television.
While I can’t share the specifics, I will tell you in my experience, the channels attract different consumers, businesses and therefore different levels of engagement.