In a previous post, found here, I discussed advertising as a risk continuum, where on one end of the spectrum, an advertiser pays up-front and waits to measure the return. On the other end, the media channel pays for the ad-campaign and waits to see the response. As far as I’m concerned, advertising fees should be tied to the success of the ad-campaigns, plain and simple, whether you’re measuring sales, brand recognition etc. The whole idea of pay up-front and wait and see for traditional advertisers has always puzzled me. So why do advertisers continue to pay ungodly amounts of money without any guaranteed returns? Online media is winning the game because of companies that are willing to take more of the risk and accountability for the advertising campaign. This greater degree of measurability is one main reason why advertisers are flocking online and away from traditional media. Has anybody attempted new ways to leverage online pay-for-performance strategies in the offline media world? I think this would be huge if you could show traditional media that they could make 50% more money by taking on some more of the risk in a truer form of partnership with their advertisers. More thoughts on this later…
