Fish Where the Fish Are

Advertising, as with most industries, is heavily researched and studied. Being one who would be considered on the younger skew of marketing professionals, I try to read as many industry publications as possible to soak in information. Often these will at least offer helpful insights or at most turn the way I had previously looked at something on its side. However, every once in awhile I have what I like to call a "duh" reaction.

I had one of those this morning. Media Post sent out this story about how targeting programs heavy with people who have bought the brand in the last two years leads to a 70% higher ROI. Well, duh. Now, I don't mean to be disrespectful to the writer, because it was very well written with some very nice statistics, however, the premise screamed 'common sense' to me.

Let me translate this same startling concept to you in "Texan":

Fish where the fish are.

Doesn't seem so complicated, does it? If you are Walmart and "The Today Show" has an off the charts index for Walmart shoppers and "Gossip Girl" has a less than average index for Walmart shoppers, where do you think the money is going?

This is why we don't buy media schedules off rating points. This is why the foundation of every buy we do for our clients is based on qualitative information that tells us exactly how likely the listeners or viewers of a certain station are to need our client's services. Fish where the fish are.

Sometimes the hardest part of our job is convincing a client that the station he or she loves personally is not the right choice for their business. Always remember, it's not about you. As a business owner, would you rather feed your ego and hear your spot in your favorite programming, or would you rather have people beating down your door for your services? Seems to me the latter would feed your ego and feed your wallet...