Another reason you should advertise here, you silly, foolish businessperson

The other day a local business that I had considered a fairly decent prospect to buy an ad on the blog told me no thanks, that they had just signed an ad contract with a local TV station. You know, old media. Sigh.

That poor would-be customer should have read this:

According to the findings of the 2010 Digital Influence Index, by Fleishman-Hillard International Communications with Harris Interactive, when it comes to driving consumer decisions about a range of products and services, the Internet is by far the most influential media channel, but marketers have yet to capitalize on that influence.

Of the seven nations the study addressed, four reported the Internet to be the most important source of information. China ranked the web highest in importance, followed by Germany, Japan, and the U.K., placing it above advice from friends, family or coworkers, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, postal mail and e?mail. And though respondents spend a significant amount of time on the web, they still reported peer advice as an important information source. The Internet and peer advice tied in importance among Americans.

Magazines, radio and postal mail had the least importance among respondents, with an average of 10, 12 and 15 percent reporting each respective media as “absolutely essential” or “extremely important.” Newspapers and television received similar average rankings of around 16 percent.

All I can say is tsk-tsk, if only they’d known. I mean, I feel bad for them; don’t you?

10 thoughts on “Another reason you should advertise here, you silly, foolish businessperson

  1. misstate

    how did that meadors for solicitor ad work out over there on the right side of the page?

  2. Greg Jones

    TV? Who watches local TV?
    Once we dropped cable and went to satellite, we lost WIS and two Charleston stations (we now get Savannah). Now we seldom watch local news (6:30 am and evening news were a staple on WIS at our house.) Plus, The State no longer delivers 90 miles from Columbia, so we don’t get local SC news that way. If you don’t use the internet (for state news and Brad Warthen) you don’t get SC news. And obviously this applies to political ads as well.
    And you wonder why people voted “alphabetically”.

  3. Brad

    Yeah, misstate, that was a shame…

    Meadors was my first advertiser to lose who didn’t lose to ANOTHER of my advertisers.

    Things worked out much better for Vincent Sheheen, Steve Benjamin, Leona Plaugh, Seth Rose and Rick Quinn… advertisers all.

    But thanks for the reminder — I need to take that one down…

  4. Brad

    Lora Prill here at ADCO tells me that I’m not making my case very well, that I should emphasize this from elsewhere in the release: “In the U.S., 42% of online consumers do not read magazines and 40% do not read a printed newspaper.”

    Since that’s all she mentioned, I’m taking it that calling potential advertisers “silly, foolish businessperson(s)” is GOOD marketing. That’s a relief…

  5. scout

    Greg, you’re not missing much on WIS these days, in my opinion. Rick Henry and Judy Gatson are the only ones there with any sense – I’m still mad that they let David Stanton go. Mark Quinn, at least, had the good sense to leave. Most of their newscasts leave you with some question of why they choose to cover what they do and if they have the ability to give you the pertinent facts. Most of the time they just seem immature and unprofessional and use way too many colloquialisms.

  6. Kathryn Fenner

    Yes, scout–whacking David Stanton was right up there with sacking Brad and Araial! David Stanton was too good for TV, imho.

    We got fed up with TWC (Think We Care) about 11 years ago, after the uptyumpth rate increase, and let them go. Have to say, other than the Oscars and 9/11, I haven’t missed them. Got to watch the Obama inaugural online!

  7. bud

    Has anybody noticed how young the WIS reporters are? Some of them look like they belong in middle school.

  8. Karen McLeod

    For the most part, TV and newspaper local “news” has devolved into who shot/robbed/libeled/(put your favorite form of assault here)whom, combined with a social page. There’s seldom any in depth reporting of significant happpenings.

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