Rip Up Your Marketing Rulebook

Non-traditional marketing used to be a fringe activity. But today when mainstream global marketing companies are shunning traditional marketing in favor of unconventional methods, everyone is taking notice. Pepsi's dramatic decision to sideline its Super Bowl advertising this year and instead focus on the "Pepsi Refresh Project" represented a groundbreaking shift from traditional to non-traditional marketing. "Pepsi Refresh Project" is a cause marketing / social media experiment taking place on an unprecedented scale. The centerpiece is a yearlong program to award $20 million in grants to "fund great ideas that refresh the world." It also includes celebrity participation, live events and ongoing communication through Twitter and Facebook. Pepsi is shifting as much as one third of its marketing budget to interactive and social media. Ad Age says Pepsi's pass on Super Bowl advertising and this social good experiment "rips up the traditional marketing rulebook." Emerging TrendPepsi's move is part of a larger trend that emerged in full force over the last decade. Marketing companies have shifted a considerable portion of their traditional marketing dollars into non-traditional media and programs. It's hard to measure precisely how much because non-traditional marketing is broad term that can include a wide variety of sales and marketing expenses that fall outside of print, radio and TV. Last December Jack Myers, media economist, analyzed spending for 19 advertising categories and 9 "below-the-line" marketing communications categories (including direct marketing, trade and consumer sales promotion, event marketing and public relations). He concluded that advertising represents only 26.8% of all marketing expenditures. Myers reported that media directed promotion/event investments generated an estimated $16.7 billion in 2009 and will generate an estimated $38 billion in additional media company revenues in 2012. Broad-Based MovementWhile a large percentage of non-traditional spending has moved into digital media, and to the burgeoning category of social media in particular, the movement is more broad-based. Guerilla marketing, mobile marketing and product sampling (see sidebar story) are just three examples of strategies and tactics that fall under the non-traditional umbrella. The wrenching economic downturn may have added momentum to the shift as marketing organizations took a hard look at expenditures. At a gathering of marketers and agencies last summer, Marc Pritchard, Global Marketing Officer at Procter & Gamble, referred to the recession as "the reset button." It allows companies, he said, to "recalibrate and rethink and innovate." The Holy GrailPepsi seems to have taken a page from P&G's playbook. With Pepsi and other large global marketing companies embracing new media and methods, non-traditional marketing no longer seems like a radical departure. Cheryl Damian, a Director in the Cause-Branding Group at Cone, said many of her clients have been asking about Pepsi's program and following its progress. "What the industry is talking about now," she said, "...is this a gamble that was worth taking, in terms of a lift in sales? That's the holy grail." PromoAidWhether you're a company that has a long history of working with non-traditional marketing methods, or your just beginning to experiment, it's critical to find the right marketing services supplier to plan and execute your program. That's where PromoAid comes in. We can help save you time and money by more efficiently identifying the right supplier to meet your objectives.