It should not be necessary to state, but choosing the right media for the right occasion is crucial. Throughout my career so far I have seen many examples of both good and bad choices of media for many different solutions and campaigns. In general the wrong choices come from either not having thought the whole process through, not considering your target audience, the timing or environment, but also a shear lack of knowledge and an intent of wanting “something” new and shiny often leads to misplaced choices.

Below is the first case in the series of the importance of choosing the right media – stay tuned to see some of the other examples that I am digging up.

Please turn off you cell phones…

planeThe first case is actually not a single case, but a repeating mishap and, in my opinion, example of bad counseling. When I go flying I always flip through the in-flight magazine, read some articles, see a couple of ads and a couple of competitions. And although I applaud the fact that, finally, competitions pr. defaults are using online media, then this might not be the right choice here.

The competitions in mention ask me to answer a question by choosing between three different answers and texting the answer to a shortcode! Just minutes before, the nice stewardess kindly asked me to put my phone off as they have just announced that all mobile equipment must turned off during the flight… I am not saying that they did not get any responses, but I doubt that the ROMI turned out positive on these campaigns.

Luckily the years of the mobile have finally come, but counseling like this definitely made some marketers hold back on the mobile throttle a few years.

Stay tuned for the next example of how the media choice can affect your efforts and feel free to share if you have your own examples or inputs.

Part 2 is now available.