From 5 to 5 Million - Business ways for reaching customers explode

In 1906, a creative business owner might be able to come up with 5 ways through which he could reach his market.   

- Newspaper

- Signage 

- Word of mouth

- branding/packaging

 and... 

hmm... 

I came up with four.  As I said, a creative business owner could do a little, but not much, better.

In 1920, the first commercial radio broadcast took place and, during that decade, Madison Avenue became synonymous with Advertising.  The age of Mass Communication had taken place.  Slick guys and gals in Manhattan could help a business navigate the multitude of options that emerged alongside the growth industries of Television, Radio, Film, Recording, Mass Transit and, eventually, personalization technology (think transitor radio, walkmans, boom-boxes).  

In the past 15 years, dozens of communication channels quickly grew into hundreds, thousands and ultimately millions of options for a growing business.  Millions?  Is that really how many options a business has to navigate?  When you consider that the options can be combined into new generation campaigns, then you see the power of today's media. 

Consider the Grasshopper.com viral marketing campaign which combined direct mail, video, social media, mass media and viral marketing techniques to get the word out about their new brand (formerly gotvmail).  The campaign got them noticed - and broke them out of a holding pattern they had been in for some time. 

This was not a radio campaign, or a direct mail campaign, or a social media campaign.  It was a hybrid that the creative genius of the GoToVmail cum Grasshopper CEO and team devised.  

Do you agree that exploding complexity is a critical roadblock for today's businesses?  How are you working through that complexity?

What kinds of creative campaigns have you seen used in this age of "5 Million" channels? 

Have you taken advantage of any new creative outlets like contests or online community building?  We'd love to hear about them... did they work?  what did you learn from them? 

Comments

[DP]

I have been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.

[Skip Shuda, Chief Cheap Revolutionary]

George - No doubt that our culture seems to emphasize the material life over beauty and serenity. I do think there is a shift here though as more conscious businesses are starting to succeed.

[George Allen]

In today’s world business language has been changed. As the competitors with a great number grab the market day by day the concept of the campaign has changed accordingly. Creative strategies win ultimately we have no doubt about it. But what I find in most of the advertisement a materialistic life. We are adopting new technology to sustain better life but what we have lost the beauty of the life.

[Skip Shuda, Chief Cheap Revolutionary]

Online video contests are definitely a creative way to reach a lot of people. It may limit your number potential participants - but extends the reach through the interest/appeal and viewing population.

Do you have a favorite online video contest example?

[rr7]

Online video contests are definitely a great, creative way for reaching lots of customers, I believe. Consider that you can even take the winning videos and upload them to multiple video sites like Vimeo, YouTube, and AdWido, there's so much to gain from hosting one of them. Generally, your potential customers also know what kind of video works well for generating buzz than you do, too.